Chapter 141: A Night Before the Storm
Chapter 141: A Night Before the Storm
We were given one night.
One night to breathe before the drums of war sounded again.
The others had taken rest where they could—Logan was sharpening blades despite Seris scolding him to sleep, Daria had finally collapsed in the library with scrolls still in her lap—but Alec and I had retreated to the highest spire of the stronghold. No guards. No politics. No strategy.
Just us.
The wind was quiet up here, cool against the stone balcony as I leaned over the edge, watching the horizon darken with the setting sun. Below, the forests stretched on endlessly. Somewhere in that sea of trees, the shadows waited. But tonight, they would wait without us.
Alec’s arms circled around my waist, pulling me back against his chest.
“You always find the highest place to escape to,” he murmured.
“Maybe I like to see the world before it changes again,” I said, resting my hands over his.
He hummed low in his throat, the sound vibrating through me. “Or maybe you like to make it hard for your mate to reach you.”
That earned a smile. “You always reach me, Alec.”
His grip tightened just slightly, possessive and protective all at once. “I always will.”
We stood like that for a while, wrapped in each other’s warmth as the stars blinked to life overhead.
And then I turned to face him.
I didn’t need words to tell him what I wanted. He saw it in my eyes. Felt it in the bond humming between us. No battlefield, no prophecy, no title could compete with the need to just be his. To feel him. To remind ourselves of what we were fighting for.
Alec kissed me like he’d been starving for it.
⸻
The room was quiet save for the crackling fire and the gentle rustle of furs. Alec’s fingers threaded through my hair as he kissed along my throat, his body pressed flush against mine. The tension we’d carried for days, weeks—even years—seeped from us with every touch.
When his lips met mine again, slower this time, I felt the shift between us. This wasn’t a rush of desperation like it had once been. It was a claiming. A reuniting of souls that had walked through hell and still found one another on the other side.
I tugged at his shirt, and he let it fall away, his golden skin catching firelight. My hands roamed the scars etched across his chest, each one a memory, a battle survived.
He cupped my cheek. “Are you sure?”
I smiled, brushing my fingers over his lips. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
He lowered me gently onto the bed, reverent as if I were something sacred. And maybe I was—we were. Sacred in a world tearing itself apart. A moment carved out just for us.
When our bodies finally met, everything else faded away.
There was only him.
Only us.
⸻
Much later, I lay tangled in his arms, my head resting on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. My fingers traced idle patterns along the runes on his skin, the ones that glowed faintly now when we were together.
“We should be sleeping,” I murmured.
“We should be doing a lot of things,” he replied with a chuckle. “But I like this better.”
I tilted my head to look at him. “What if tomorrow everything changes again? What if the war takes more than we’re ready to lose?”
His hand threaded through my hair, his thumb brushing against my temple. “Then we take everything back. Together.”
“I don’t want to lose you, Alec.”
“You won’t,” he said, voice firm. “You can’t. I’m not going anywhere without you.”
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat.
Outside, the wind carried the faint sound of a horn in the distance—an allied scout returning, no doubt. Even the night couldn’t keep the war at bay forever.
But for now…
Alec kissed the crown of my head.
“We have tonight,” he said. “And I’m going to love you until the sun rises.”
And he did.