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October 24 - October 30, 2024
“I’m sorry.” He smiled softly, and I knew he wasn’t truly sorry. “You just looked sad for a second. That’s all.”
Then you laughed, and I thought you were the most beautiful woman in the entire world.”
Fool, I thought, cursing him. It did matter. This whole time, I’d assumed he hated her for her power and what she could do. But he hated her because she had me. I couldn’t breathe, my heart racing.
“What are you doing?” I blinked a few times. “I don’t know.” His eyes scanned mine, something ancient and powerful there before his eyes darted to my lips and back. “Do it again.” And so I did.
I wondered if her grief was the epitome of darkness. Without Samkiel acting as her light, darkness was all that remained.
Granted, The Hand and others filled a fraction of that void, but only Gabriella and Samkiel had ever been close enough to truly know her. They were the only two who had ever been able to reach her. Gabriella had been her heart. Samkiel was her soul.
Dianna punched the bag again but didn’t respond. She moved so quickly, her strikes precise and even, just like her World Ender.
“You are truly a fool if you think that man would ever stop loving you, Dianna.”
“He just needs time, my queen. He deserves that.”
“Only love would make someone do something so absolutely reckless.”
She is so fierce and brave and courageous. She knew who I was, knew the stories, and didn’t care. Her loyalty knows no bounds, and she risked everything for her sister. Only a fool would not love a person that astounding.
The crowd outside, shoveling and fixing their ruined buildings, didn’t even notice the two most powerful beings in the universe fighting a few feet away. Even the shop she’d tossed me in was abandoned.
It wasn’t in fear of the hundreds of flying bugs that probably infested this city, but because Samkiel, World Ender, Destruction Incarnate, and the legendary God King throughout all twelve realms, was kneeling before me. His hand was raised, and he held a shimmering silver ring that held a rhombus-cut, clear jewel.
OOOOH MY GODDDD
“I wanted to do this differently, but I am afraid that creature signaled more to come. There is no perfect place to do this. No place would be perfect enough for you, but anywhere you are is perfect for me.”
“How?” My voice was nothing but a whisper. “How can I love you?” His face drew tight. “Yes. After everything I’ve done, everything I put you through? Especially recently?” Samkiel looked at me in utter disbelief as if I had said the stupidest thing in the world. The ground shook once more, a rumbling I felt more than heard.
“Don’t look at me like that.” I shook my head. “I lied to you.” Samkiel nodded. “I know.” “I hurt you.” My voice cracked. “Like I hurt her.”
“I have told you a thousand times before that there is no horrible life with you, only without.” His voice was strong and unwavering. Samkiel was a warrior, first and foremost, and this was a fight I knew he would not back down from. “Yes, we fought. People who love each other deeply do that. Yes, you hurt me by lying to me, but I know where that comes from.”
“And you don’t get to run away when you get scared. You don’t get to abandon me when it’s tough, Dianna. Never again.”
“I’ll hurt you.” My voice came out as small and damned as I felt. “Then hurt me.” Samkiel’s eyes softened, and he stepped closer, his body almost flush with mine. “But don’t leave me.”
I knew I’d burn oceans to mist, skies to dust, and worlds to rubble to keep him near. Love was too dull of a word for what I felt for him and one I hated to say. It meant nothing. I understood now why they had stories of losing an amata and why Logan was feral when he felt Neverra in Yejedin. I understood now and knew the true loss of another’s soulmate was one of the worst pains known in any realm.
There were no limits I would not breach for him. I had ripped him from death. These things would not take him from me.
Samkiel and I were fighting, yet our eyes were only on each other.
“I’m stupid.” I kicked my foot out, stomping on the chomping head that neared me. “I was wrong. I would rather fight every day with you than be without you.”
“You found me.” “You find me, I find you,” I panted back, handing him his sword. It collapsed into his ring as soon as it touched his hand. “That’s how we work.”
I stepped forward, my hands in front of me, fingers intertwined. We were both covered in guts and bile, and gods knew what else. There was nothing romantic about this, but I stared at him and felt nothing but warmth. He was the one person who never abandoned me, no matter how cruel, vicious, or mean I was.
The truth was he was too good for me, and I was more comfortable leaving. It was safer. I could protect my heart, my soul. The problem was, neither of them was mine any longer. They were his and had been for some time now.
Somehow, he had healed them and made me whole. So even if my love was a dark, powerful, brutal thing, it was still just love.
“I thought it was painfully obvious,” I said, blowing out a breath. “I’m an idiot.” His head reared back. “What? No. You’re one of the smartest people I know. One of the smartest I’ve ever met.” I shook my head. “Not when it comes to you.”
Samkiel, you are not anything I could have ever expected. You prove my worst insecurities wrong at every turn and make me see how good some people are. You make me feel. At times, being in this relationship with you is hard for me because I care so much. I don’t want to mess up, mess us up, and I don’t know what I’m doing.
“I want you to repeat in that glorious head of yours what you just said. How you’d help me save my family and the realms despite how you thought I no longer wanted you. You put yourself, your feelings, and your heart last again. And don’t think for one second I deserve anyone better than you. There is no one better than you. There never has been. No one is more courageous or godsdamn selfless. You ran into a hive full of flesh-eating acidic insects—”
“How could I not be completely and utterly in love with you?” “You love me?” My heart melted. “With everything I am and everything I ever will be.”
“But first.” He reached beneath his armor and pulled out the ring he’d wrapped in a piece of thin black material. “Dianna. Ayla. Akrai. My world. My life. My love. Will you marry me?” “No.” His brows drew together so tightly I worried about his face freezing that way. My smile was so big it made my cheeks hurt. “I’m kidding. It’s yes. It’s a thousand times, yes.”
“Nothing. It is just nice to have an equal in every way. You are perfect.”
“Yes. If we cannot share the mark, I want the next best option. I want everyone who encounters us to know who we belong to. I want something that can protect you when I cannot.
One, they have to find a precious gem for their intended, and it has to be rare. That is a sign of how they view their intended. Your stone can only be found at the center of one very active and nasty lava pit.
I gripped her arm and pried her from him, ignoring her hiss as I pushed her back. “Mine,” I snapped, making sure my eyes flared a vivid red.
“Just go get her before I burn her alive, and we have to do the ceremony ourselves.” “Yes, akrai.”
“Please forgive me, oh great future queen. I pledge my life to protect you and your kingdom’s secrets. Please spare me from my mistake.” She continued to ramble on.
“I told her you are my future queen, and I want her to perform the ceremony. I assume she feels bad for touching me, even in gratitude. She is asking for forgiveness. Oh, and she also doesn’t want you to eat her.”
“This was the first place I went after our fight. I needed a place to keep the one person who I love the most safe. Nowhere we have been has been good enough, and when I remembered this realm, I needed to see if it still stood. It does, and it is also abandoned. I checked the entire place. They even left the furniture.”
“I want you to make this your new home… I want you to make this our new home. Fill it with laughter and joy like only you can. I want to fight with you here, love with you here, and fill it with our family. Only you can give me this, Dianna.
I can give you the house, but only you can make it our home.”
I could face anything, knowing he stood at my back. He was my shield, my strength, and soon he would be my husband.
“I know you broke your wrist when you were young, protecting your sister. You showed me where the scar was when we were in that small motel on Onuna, and you were trying to make me feel better about my outburst. I know the ocean is your favorite place, even if it still hurts you. When you were young, you lied and said that you and Gabriella had the same birthday so that people would think you were twins. Pasta was the first thing you learned to cook, but baking is your favorite. You prefer silk over most fabrics, leather over rough jeans, and you think that one of the best perks of immortality
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Omg im actually criying
I saw her eyes widen in the mirror. “Wow.” I smiled. “You like?” “You look like a goddess.” Miska gaped. “No, you are way prettier.”
“My apologies. I have seen this outcome in so many variations, but this one is my favorite. You look…” He paused, meeting my gaze, and I could have sworn the fate had tears in his eyes. “Like you have found your home.”
“I can tell you with a hundred percent accuracy that there is no vision I have ever seen where he changes his mind about you.”
Through it all, the fates’ warning was seared into my brain. The words they were screaming echoed through time and space. Fear! Fear! Fear! The Queen of Rashearim.
My nerves melted away the moment our eyes locked. A smile that made my cheeks hurt spread across my face. He looked at me as if I were the most beautiful thing in the world. I hoped he saw the same adoration in my gaze. I didn’t know how I’d ever looked at or touched another before him. This was it. He was it. He was my everything.
All I saw was Samkiel.
