Page 41 of The Reaping Rose

“How did you know I was real?” My voice is nearly a whisper. “How did you know I wasn’t just another hallucination?”

A sad smile tilts in the corner of his mouth, brightening his aether-flecked golden eyes. “You are my mate, Elorie. I just knew.” He inches closer. “You are the warmth in my blood that had been missing. The light in the night sky, giving a hopeless male something to wish on. You are the reason for my existence, in this realm and beyond Sarrow. I knew.” He slips into my mind. “Look at me, Elorie. See me.”

As if his gaze opens, the golden light drags me under. I allow myself a single step, pausing as his scent floods my lungs again. Wilder has yet to reach for me but holds me tight. A blanket of warmth, of protection, of comfort.

A pinprick of light sparks along his scar, dripping like a running river over his cheek until every rune glows gold against his warm bronze skin. My gaze falls to one rune in particular, perfectly framed by how his shirt hangs open halfway down his chest. The four-pointed star with four moons glows the brightest. A rune matching my own.

I press my palm at the center of my chest. Light blooms beneath it, and while Wilder’s glows gold, mine is white starlight. It floods out of the rune and bathes my skin as my magic grows.

The tether between us snaps taut, clicking in place like it never darkened. Like he was never out of my reach.

My mate.

His smile grows. “There you are.”

“Wilder.” I reach for him.

My fingers find the searing runes on his chest hot and swimming with magic. His skin warm and his eyes desperate as I close the distance. My arms wrap his shoulders, and he binds his around my waist, lifting me off my feet as I sink against him.

Beneath his ribs, his heart hammers. It drums in my ear as he hugs me tighter.

“I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again.” I pull back as he sets me on my feet.

His hands find the sides of my face, his thumb grazing my freckles. “That was never going to happen.”

“But I was in the prison. How—oh gods, did you go inside?”

His jaw clenches as he nods.

“But it let you out. How is it possible? How are we here? Where are we?” Panic swells with all the impossibilities; my grip on his arms tightens as if at any moment he’ll float away on the wind. “Callum, Letia, Greer. I was supposed to meet them⁠—”

“They’re here.” He grazes his thumb over my cheek again. “You need to sit down.”

Wilder guides me back to the bed, urging me to sit while he squats before me. “I’ve been searching for you since we split ways at the Ley Court, but I couldn’t find you. At times, I’d feel you on the other end of the thread, and I’d whisper for you, but then it would close, and I don’t know if you heard me.”

“I think I did once,” I admit, glancing down when his hand rests over mine.

“A few days ago, something opened—a door where there wasn’t one before—and I felt you again. With the Arches being fickle, it took time to get one to open on our end, but when it did, I stepped through to Alyssium.”

“At my mother’s sword?”

He nods.

“It worked.”

“Callum and Greer were there, and they told me you’d gone into the prison.”

“The people from my village—the rings⁠—”

“They’re here too. Your plan worked. At least, for now. We don’t know how long the effects of the aeraliss will last. Perame brought your people to Vaelier while I went in search of you.”

I shake my head, trying to process everything he’s saying. “Why would you risk stepping into the prison again? It could have locked you inside.”

“It didn’t.”

“But how?” My eyebrows pinch. “Because you died already within the walls?”

“I don’t know. It wasn’t the same this time when I stepped through the prison arch.”