Where I Belong

Where I Belong
Layla (A Few Months Later)

The bond didn’t feel all-consuming anymore. Not that it wasn’t there, or that I didn’t feel it.

It was more like it was always there. Like a heartbeat. You kind of forgot you had one, but it was the reason you were alive. The reason you felt anything at all.

It quickened when we looked at each other, when he touched me, when we kissed. It lit on fire when I was near him, when he talked to me, when we made love through all hours of the night. 

I stood just inside the doorway, watching my family as they talked and laughed togehter. All of them. My father stood near the fire, speaking with Fen. It was nice to see that they could speak to each other more freely. Isidora was a more welcome guest now, though some moments were still tense. 

She was on the sofa, next to mom and Valeria as they talked to each other about who knows what. Draven leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, pretending to pay attention to what was happening in the room. 

He wasn’t very convincing. Especially not with Maelis right beside him. 

They weren’t touching, but every time she so much as moved her neck, Draven would tense and look in her direction. I wondered what was happening there, and how long it would take them to just turn to each other. 

Sera was near the piano, watching Theron attempt to play a piece he swears he had been practicing. Her flinching would argue otherwise. 

All of them were here.

“You’re just staring at them, again.” Kai’s voice was quiet at my side.

I hadn’t heard him approach, but his presence was a welcome warmth. His arms wrapped around my waist and I leaned back into his chest. 

“I can’t help it,” I replied. “It feels so nice to see them all together.”

He chuckles, pressing a kiss to my temple. “Even Seb?”

I looked to the side, finding him sitting on the floor with a book on his lap, his hair falling over his eyes. The sight made me chuckle. He was exactly the same as when he was younger. “Yeah, even Seb.”

As if hearing his name, Seb looked up from his book. His eyes narrowed immediately. “Are you talking about me?”

“No, not at all,” I said.

He jumped to his feet, slamming his book closed and tucking it under his arm. “But I heard my name.”

“No one is talking about you,” Draven said, rolling his eyes. 

Seb scoffed, settling down on the sofa across from mom. 

“I think they were admiring your social skills,” Theron called from the piano, slamming the keys. Sera laughed, keeping her eyes on him, even following him as she plopped himself by Seb’s side. 

Seb glared at all of us before opening his book on his lap. “You’re all just a bit much sometimes.”

I smiled, shaking my head as I settled further into Kai’s embrace.

He leaned down, pressing a kiss just behind my ear. “Do you want to make our escape?”

I frowned. “Where?”

“To our cabin,” he muttered, tightening his arms around me. 

“Kai, when are you—”

“Never,” he whispered. “I will never have enough of you.”

I smacked his hands away, turning around to kiss him. He smiled into it, tongue wrapping around mind. 

A year ago, this would have been impossible.

Dad would have still been carrying the weight of the kingdom on his shoulders alone, keeping me locked up for my own safety. Mom would have been worrying herself sick over all of us, still keeping Isidora at arm’s length. Draven would have hidden behind his duty, confused about his worth. Maelis and Sera would still be trapped beneath Varynth’s control.

And me?

I would have still been human, and without Kai. 

I pulled away from his lips, pressing my forehead to his. “I love you.”

His fingers grip my waist. “I love you.”

Sometimes I still remembered sunlight on warm skin. A racing heartbeat. The simple comfort of breathing. Sometimes I did miss those feelings. 

But nothing could beat the feel of his hands on my skin, the sound of my family togehter. 

Kai rested his chin on my head. “Fine, I guess we can spend the rest of the day here, but your night is mine.”

It always was. 

The bond pulsed, like a quickening heartbeat. 

Outside the windows, the world continued to grow and change. The new magic had spread farther than anyone anticipated. Humans and vampires were learning what it meant to live beside one another in a realm that no longer favored one over the other.

There were still disagreements, and we expected there would always be challenges. There would always be people unwilling to let go of old ways.

But there was real hope again, actual change happening in the world. 

Hope that children would grow up in a world better than the one we had inherited. Hope that old wounds would heal. Hope that the bonds formed between us would remain strong.

I looked around the room one more time. At the people fate had woven into my life in ways I never could have imagined.

Some bonds were forged by blood, some by love, some by sacrifice, and some by fate itself. For so long, I had feared the threads that tied my life to others. Feared what they would demand of me and what they would cost me.

But standing here now, wrapped in Kai’s arms as laughter filled the room around us, I finally understood.

The bonds of fate had never been my burden; they had always been my greatest gift.

The bond in my chest pulsed softly in agreement.

And for the first time in my life, I knew exactly where I belonged.

The End.