Page 123 of Aryn

“Say we make it to the Vaelor, and somehow convince her that our worlds need to unite. It’s going to start another war.”

He sighs, absently wrapping his tail around my wrist. “It might.”

“It will,” I argue, “and not only does our side have to win, but we have to survive it.”

“Cato—”

“But what if we do?” I press. “What if we actually come out of this unscathed, and the worlds end up joined? What if it works out the way Sovran said it would? We’ve been so busy trying to survive that we haven’t even talked about what it really means.”

“According to Sovran, it means you would share my life,” he says quietly.

“How long do your people even live?”

He hums softly. “In peaceful times, most live well into their eighth or ninth century.”

“Fuck me,” I mutter. “You realize how impossible that sounds to a human, right? We’re lucky to hit sixty anymore.”

“I imagine it’s quite a shock.”

“A shock,” I snort.

He laughs and shoves my shoulder. “Well, what would you call it?”

I pause, taking a second to figure out how to explain it. “When we first stepped through that portal, it felt like… a dream. Like it wasn’t real, you know? Like I’d blink and wake up to find the whole thing had only happened in my head. But then we went to sleep, and I woke up, and the sky was still orange. I imagine it’ll be something like that. One day I’ll wake up on my three-hundredth birthday, staring in the mirror and wondering why we couldn’t have done this when I was younger and didn’t have any gray hairs yet. I’ll look outside, the sky will still be orange, and that’s when I’ll know it was all real.”

Aryn’s eyes search mine for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is careful. “You want to be here? In Elyra?”

“I…” I trail off, shaking my head. “Maybe?”

“And you want to be… with me?”

“You know I do,” I breathe as he inches closer.

“You want it now,” he counters, “because it’s new and exciting. It’s an adventure, Cato, and you live for adventure. What happens when the worlds are peaceful and all that’s left are quiet nights, books, and routine—the things I love that you find boring? What happens when I’m no longer exciting?”

Despite the heaviness settling between us, I flash him a grin. “You really underestimate my ability to cause chaos, darlin’.”

Aryn laughs, a loud, delighted sound, before closing the distance. I’m still smiling when he kisses me, then he pushes me back against the furs and coaxes my lips open. His tongue finds mine, his arms surround me, and for a moment I’m light in a way that doesn’t make sense with everything weighing on us.

My heart is so full of him it almost hurts. “Aryn—”

“Wait until we’re alone,” he pleads between kisses. “Wait until I can give you every piece of me with no interruptions. Can you do that for me?”

The words I want to say are right there on my tongue, desperate to come out, but when one of the guards catcalls, I know he’s right. This isn’t the time or place.

I swallow them back down. “Yeah,” I rasp, clutching the back of his neck and pulling him in for one last, lingering kiss. “Yeah, I can do that.”

Aryn

Nymir carries us steadily along the narrow mountain trail. Fresh snow fell overnight, blanketing the world in a pristine white that glows soft orange under the rising sun. Despite the constant danger that lurks out here in the wilds, I allow myself a rare moment of quiet contentment.

Cato glances back over his shoulder with that crooked, teasing grin on his face. “You’re getting handsy again.”

I smile against the side of his neck and let one hand drift lower on his stomach, fingers splaying possessively over the soft flesh there. “Can you blame me? You’re warm.”

“I think the word you’re looking for is hot.”

“That, too, yes. And you fit between my legs so perfectly.”