Chapter 218 AURORA BOREALIS

Chapter 218 AURORA BOREALIS
Outside, the palace corridors lay hushed, shadows stretched long and solemn across the marble floors.
My footsteps whispered over the carpeted stairs as I descended, the silence wrapping closer with every step, anticipation tightening inside me like a drawn bowstring.
At the front drive, the limousine waited with its headlights spilling pale gold against the stone archway. I slipped inside, sinking into the plush leather seat. The driver inclined his head in silent acknowledgment before steering us toward the Velariad, the engine purring low as the palace began to retreat behind us.
I curled my fingers around the cuff of Sargis's shirt, tugging absently at the fabric while my mind raced ahead of the car. What could he possibly be planning? A moonlit walk along the riverbank? A quiet corner in one of Velariad's taverns where no one bowed or whispered our names? I smiled at the thought, knowing with Sargis it could be anything, from a stolen hour of simplicity to something that shifted the ground beneath my feet.
I let my head fall back, the cool leather framing the warmth gathering in my chest. It wasn't the surprise itself that thrilled me. It was him, his steady certainty, the way he spun constellations of meaning out of ordinary moments, and how he always managed to turn the world into something I hadn't thought to look at twice.
About thirty minutes later, after I'd raided the small stash of sweets he always, without fail, kept hidden in every car for me, the car slowed. we pulled to a gentle stop at the garden's entrance.
The driver stepped out and opened the door, and cool night air swept in, carrying with it the faint perfume of night-blooming jasmine. I slid out, my shoes brushing over the gravel path, and the limousine door clicked shut behind me.
Velariad's garden spilled wide and endless before me, a silver sea unfurling in every direction. The paths were stitched with moonlight, each curve of stone softened by dew that winked from leaf to leaf.
Sargis stood a few paces ahead on the flagstone path, hands clasped behind him, the dark sweep of his shirt catching stray beams of moonlight until he seemed carved from the stillness itself.
When our eyes met, his smile broke. And the warm tremor that rushed through me nearly stole the strength from my knees. He ate the distance between us in five strides.
"You made it," he murmured. His fingers brushed a stray lock of hair from my cheek. "I thought you might've forgotten me." His mouth curved with that teasing grin of his.
I snorted, rolling my eyes. "So goofy."
But my chest betrayed me, tightening with a little bloom of heat.
He extended his hand. "Walk with me?"
I slid my fingers into his, the roughness of his calloused skin sparking something soft in my chest. The garden smelled of crushed mint and damp earth, the fragrance stirred by the hush of our steps. Gravel whispered beneath our feet, each crunch echoing like punctuation in the silence, while lanterns along the path blinked alive one by one, spilling soft golden halos over climbing roses.
I found myself stealing glances upward, trying and failing to guess what he was plotting.
We reached a fork in the path, and there he stopped, turning to face me with a glint in his eyes that made my stomach dip.
"For this next part," he said, voice low and playful, "I have to blindfold you."
I barked a laugh, heat rising to my throat. "That's not ominous at all."
"Do you trust me?"
"Always."
His smile softened at that before he slipped a strip of silk from his pocket. It was warm from his palm, carrying his heat as he tied it gently over my eyes. The fabric pressed soft against my lashes, stealing the garden from me in an instant.
My pulse leapt, sharper now, as the world shrank to scent and sound.
"Hold on," he murmured, close enough that I felt his breath ghost my ear.
Before I could answer, his arms swept beneath my knees and around my back, lifting me as though I weighed nothing. I let out a startled squeak that tumbled into a laugh, clutching at his shoulder for balance.
"Warn a girl next time," I whispered into the curve of his neck.
"I like the surprise better," he mumbled smugly against my ear.
He carried me deeper into the garden. Crickets throbbed in the darkness, their steady chorus threading through the night. The air cooled as we moved, touched by the whisper of the nearby river, its unseen presence bending the night into something expectant.
At last, he lowered me back onto solid ground, his hand firm at the small of my back, steadying me. His chest brushed close against me, heat anchoring me in the dark.
"It'll start in a minute," he murmured, wrapping his arms around me from behind, chin grazing the slope of my shoulder.
"Let me count you in."
I leaned into him, my heart thudding against the blindfold's darkness. His breath tickled the curve of my ear when he began.
"Five... four... three..."
Each syllable dripped like honey, stretching the silence until it trembled.
"...two... one."
The silk slid upward, cool against my temple, and the world returned in a single, shattering gasp.
The sky was no longer a sky. It was a living ocean of light.
Emerald ripples unfurled first, slow and sinuous, slipping from one edge of the horizon to the other until the entire vault glowed like a sea turned inside out. Sapphire threads stitched themselves through the sheen, quivering as though some unseen hand plucked the night like harp-strings. Then violet veils bloomed wide, spilling downward in languid curtains that breathed against the air, soft as a sigh.
I forgot to breathe. My chest rose and stayed suspended, trapped in awe.
Beside me, Sargis's arms tightened, pulling me flush against him. The garden disappeared beneath the flood of color, fountains glazed silver, every leaf trembling beneath strokes of turquoise, lashes of sudden gold flaring and fading as though the heavens themselves exhaled fire.
His chin brushed the crown of my head, his breath warm and steady against my ear.
"Worth the blindfold?" he murmured.
I swallowed hard, throat tight, eyes still drinking greedily from the impossible spectacle. "It's... like the gods poured their souls into the sky."
He bent closer, his mouth near the shell of my ear. "I told you the Aurora borealis view from here was insane," he teased gently. "Breathtaking, right?"
My vision blurred, the shimmering curtains above doubling as tears welled and slid, cool against my cheeks.
This man.
Always placing something luminous in my hands. Always turning ruins into wonder, whether a hidden garden, or a promise whispered in the dark, or a future I had once thought forever stolen from me. Always reminding me that beyond scars there could still be light, beyond wreckage there could still be color. Not just the aurora above us, but the peace I thought I had forfeited.
He had stitched harmony where chaos had ruled. He had given me a home where I had known only walls. Piece by piece, with the patience of a man who believed in beauty even when I couldn't, he had shown me what a life could look like when it was allowed to bloom.
Sargis caught one of my tears on his thumb, brushing it away with a tenderness that made my chest ache."No more storms tonight," he murmured. "Just us."
I laced my fingers through his, feeling the roughness of his knuckles, the steadiness that had carried me through fire and shadow.
We sank onto the cool marble bench, shoulder to shoulder, our bodies tilting until there was no space left between us. Above, the sky shimmered and rolled, spilling its ribbons of color over the world.
"You're always caring for me," I hiccuped, the words catching like small birds in my throat.
He gave that half-smile of his, the one that balanced mischief with devotion, the one that made me forget entire wars."Well, that's because you're the Lycan King's treasured Luna, silly. You deserve nothing less."
A watery laugh tumbled out of me.
I tilted my head against his shoulder, watching the green veil sweep back across the stars like silk drawn over glass. "Indeed," I whispered. "I am the Lycan King's treasured Luna. You've shown me that, time after time."
Our joined hands rested on his thigh, my fingers idly tracing circles into his skin, as if I could carve this memory into the marrow of the world itself. He bent and pressed a lingering kiss into my hair, and for a heartbeat, the night was nothing but the pulse of his heart against my side, steady, unyielding, mine.
Then he shifted. I felt the absence instantly, my body tilting with the loss of his weight beside me. There was a faint rustle, the sound of something crinkling. My brows pulled together just as he returned, hiding something behind his back.
The grin tugging at his mouth betrayed him.
When he finally revealed what he'd been holding, I burst into laughter so sudden it startled the night birds into flight."Bananas? Really?"
He waggled the two bunches with all the smugness of a man presenting treasure. "Remember? This was the first thing you asked for."
"I remember," I replied. "How could I ever forget?"
He peeled one with quick, unceremonious fingers and handed it to me. I bit into it immediately, the sweet taste crashing over me like déjà vu. For a moment, I was back at the beginning, hungry, wary, and half feral.
"It tastes the same as the first time," I murmured around a smile.
He chuckled, and together we abandoned the bench, sinking onto the grass itself. The dew kissed through the fabric of my sweats, cool against my skin, but it didn't matter. We sat cross-legged in the hush of Velariad's garden, bananas in hand, while the aurora poured its endless light over us.
There had been a time I believed love was a gift meant for others, something glimpsed in the spaces between people but never meant to rest in my palms. For a girl like me, there had only ever been survival, shadows, chains, and the constant ache of being less. Yet here he was, the king who had pulled me from darkness, The man who had stood when the world burned, whose hands had steadied me when I faltered, whose eyes had never once turned away from the mess of scars I carried, who had waded through blood and ruin with me, and had shown me that even broken things could be cherished if I was only brave enough to believe I was worth it.
I leaned into him as we watched the last threads of color dissolve into the scatter of stars. The aurora dimmed to velvet shadows, leaving only us and the hush of roses whispering in the garden.
In that silence, I let go. I made peace with every wound that had carved me, every whisper of doubt that had poisoned me, and every name they had branded on my skin, survivor, outcast, broken. Tonight, they all fell away like ash in the wind.
I was Narine Sargsyan. Queen beside my king. No longer defined by what had been stolen from me but by what I had chosen to become. The past no longer owned me.
The wind shifted, lifting the petals from the roses, scattering them across the marble like blessings. Sargis bent and pressed his lips to the crown of my head.
I smiled through my tears. Indeed, I was the Lycan King's treasured Luna. And this, this peace, this laughter, this aching, breathtaking love, was only the beginning of the life we would build, together, beneath an endless sky.
His chest rumbled with a low laugh, pulling me from the swell of my thoughts."By the way," I murmured, tilting my chin up toward him, "do you still want to see my wolf?"
His grin flashed, bright as the stars still hanging overhead. "I thought you'd never offer."