“No more walls.” His arms tightened around her. “That was always the point, wasn’t it? Burn it down.”
She turned in his embrace, facing him. Even now, after everything, he still took her breath away. The sharp planes of hisface, the crimson eyes that had once terrified her and now made her feel like the center of the universe, the way his expression softened when he looked at her—all predator and all devotion, somehow existing in the same terrible, beautiful creature.
“I used to dream about this, you know,” she said quietly. “When I was a child, before your family—” She stopped, swallowed. Some wounds never fully healed. “Before everything. I used to dream about walking through the metropolis without having to hide. About a world where my people didn’t have to live in the shadows.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m standing on the ruins of the old world with the man who murdered my family, watching that dream become real.” She reached up to cup his face, her thumb tracing the line of his jaw. “Life is strange.”
“Life is impossible.” He turned his head to press a kiss to her palm. “We are impossible. This world we’re building is impossible. And yet here we are.”
Here they were.
The last Nostrom and the fae assassin who had come to destroy him. The Serpent and his little murderer. Husband and wife, bound by blood and by vows that could have meant nothing but somehow meant everything.
They had become something strange. Not rulers. They had no desire for that. Neither of them were officiallyinchargeof anything. But that didn’t mean they didn’t wield influence. They were bridges. Living proof that the ancient hatreds between their peoples could be overcome, that love could grow in the strangest and most unlikely of soils.
“Come on.” Raziel took her hand, threading his fingers through hers. “There’s something I want to show you.”
He led her along the top of the ruined wall, past crews of workers and piles of debris, until they reached a point wherethe old ramparts had once overlooked the boundary between the city and the Wild. The stone beneath their feet was cracked and broken, split apart by the same vines that had plagued the metropolis for centuries.
But now those vines weren’t just invasive growth to be beaten back. They wereembraced.
Nadi caught her breath.
Below them, the street had been transformed. The Wild’s bioluminescent vegetation wound through the architecture like veins of light, their purple-blue glow mingling with the warm amber of the city’s electric lamps. Buildings that had once been sterile stone now sprouted with controlled growth—gardens on rooftops, flowering vines cascading down walls, trees with luminescent bark providing shade in public squares.
It wasn’t the Wild consuming the city.
It wasn’t the city beating back the Wild.
It was something new. Something that had never existed before. Two worlds,woventogether, creating something stronger and more beautiful than either could have been alone.
“The first test block,” Raziel said softly. “They finished the integration last night. I wanted you to see it before the official unveiling tomorrow.”
“It’s…” She couldn’t find the words. “Raziel, it’sbeautiful.”
“It’s a beginning.” He pulled her closer, and together they looked out over the street below—over the fae and humans and vampires who were already gathering to marvel at this impossible thing their world was becoming. “The architects say they can have the whole eastern district done within a year if the test results hold. After that, the northern sectors. And eventually…”
“Eventually, no one will be able to tell where the city ends and the Wild begins.”
“Eventually, there won’t be a difference. I don’t think there ever was meant to be one.”
She leaned into him, her head resting against his chest. His heart beat steadily beneath her ear—slow, as vampire hearts always were, but alive and real.
“Do you ever regret it?” she asked. “Giving up the throne you could have had? The absolute power your grandmother promised you?”
He was quiet for a long moment, his hand coming up to stroke her hair.
“She wanted me to tear down the old world and rebuild it in my own image. One sovereign. One throne. One absolute ruler over vampires, humans, and fae alike.” He shook his head slowly. “I’m a shit leader. I was never meant to rule.”
“No.” She smiled against his chest. “You weren’t.”
“I think I was always lying to myself. You and I, we have one skill, and one alone.” His voice was soft, thoughtful. “But I think what I always wanted was for things to bedifferent. To not be a pawn in someone else’s game.”
“And now you have that.”
“Wehave that.” He kissed her then, slow and sweet and full of promise. And as the twin moons rose higher in the sky, as the bioluminescent vines pulsed with their ancient light, as three peoples took their first tentative steps toward a shared future, Nadi allowed herself to believe that maybe—just maybe—they had done somethingright.
