Shadow & Storms (The Legends of Thezmarr, #4)

by Helen Scheuerer

The thought was bittersweet, for she’d won the Great Rite and achieved what she’d always wanted, only to have lost something more precious when she emerged.

For him, the world would wait. And when he was safe at her side, they could watch the whole fucking thing go up in flames to be reborn anew.

She broke away, panting. ‘I love you,’ she gasped, refusing to tear her eyes away from him. ‘I love you so much I can hardly breathe. I’ve wanted to say it for so long —’ Wilder gave a hoarse, broken laugh. ‘Tell me again later. Tell me when we’re safe.’ Thea kissed him again, desperate to show him that tempest he’d brought to life within her from the moment they’d met. ‘I’ll tell you every day until my last,’ she murmured.

He didn’t question why she wasn’t using magic. He simply let her take the lead, an equal, a fellow Warsword in command.

A muscle twitched in Wilder’s jaw as he looked from her magic to the question in her eyes. ‘Bring it down,’ he said at last. ‘Bring the whole fucking thing down.’ He didn’t need to ask her twice. Thea rallied her strength, her power, and threw everything she had at the Scarlet Tower. The place that had held her love captive, that had hurt him, that had seen monsters created and thrust upon the midrealms… ‘I am the storm,’ she told herself. She let her lightning rage, right alongside her heart, and she split the gods-damned tower in two.

‘You have proven time and time again that you can fight your own battles,’ Wilder murmured in her ear. ‘But there are those you shouldn’t have to. Let me fight this one for you. Let me carry this burden.’