Wild ​Reverence
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Read between October 3 - October 7, 2025
4%
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the vow tasted like the brine of the sea. Like a night laden with tears. Like drops of sweat provoked by a merciless midday sun.
7%
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The sound was exquisite. And now that I had heard such splendor, I could not forget it. The way it had filled me like the darkest of wines, the brightest of moons. This was magic that I could not cast but could still feel in my body, in my soul. And I desired more of it.
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a heart always wants what it cannot have,”
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“Do not let the dreams make you too soft,” she said. “Guard your own soul, child.”
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we laughed until we cried, and my ribs felt bruised from the glee, and it seemed as if we had drunk all the light from the sky.
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I realized that I could hold such happiness. There was a space for it, hidden within me, and it could grow deeper roots if I let it.
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For men are like eithrals: they are drawn to shining, quicksilver things, keen to tame them.
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And I would like to think my story began long ago when I came into the world as a pale, silent boy, destined to one day die. But it truly begins here, in this moment when my dreams grew bones and teeth and skin in the waking realm. The moment I met Red.
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What could I have done to keep a goddess safe? I realized it could not be achieved by embracing her. Only by letting her go.
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You hold on to her. But who could hold on to the wind? And—better yet—who would be so foolish as to trust—to love—such a wild being?
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This is the beginning of the end, I thought. If heartless gods can be made soft by such love, we are all doomed.
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I smiled and laughed and listened more than I spoke. I hid what I truly felt because emotions were a snare, a danger.
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Gradually, I bloomed, like a primrose that waits for the moon to rise.
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She was forged from iron and stone and gold. From secrets I could never taste, from places I could never tread.
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He was irreverent, expecting only the worst from the gods. But I would stay and aid him and his people. I would see them through their darkest era until my guilt was washed away by good deeds like blood from cloth.
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“Forgive me, but I must kiss you now.
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She had an uncanny way of making one feel like he was the only one in the world, as if she saw the deeper layers of a soul that no one else could see.
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“If it takes you,” I said, “then let it also take me. Don’t leave me behind like this, Red.”
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His voice had pulled me back through howling gusts and constellations of unnamed stars. Through a distance that had felt as endless and deep as the sea.
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I gathered her into my arms. She smelled familiar to me. I wanted to bury my face in her neck, in her hair. And for a moment, our hearts were young again. It was only me and her. The warmth of her body seeping into me. The stars, casting us in silver.
64%
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she was beautiful in a way that robbed breath and stole into dreams.
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Matilda smiled at me. That is when I knew I was doomed, knee-deep in this quandary. I loved her.
71%
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I do not know when this happened, when the current rose and when I let it take me, willingly, but there came a moment when I looked at you and could not breathe. There was a moment when I watched you depart, and I wanted to fall to my knees.
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My home is your home. My arms are a haven for you to rest. My last name is yours if you desire it. I will love you to my grave, and even beyond it, when the mists welcome me,
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I could not hold her any more than I could the wind, but I loved her for it.
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was weak for her alone, and I wanted her to know it.
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We were doomed, she and I. One day, I would perish, and she would live on, endless as the stars. But if we were doomed, then let us fully embrace it.
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And I thought that I could perish then and there and be wholly content to die, on my knees before her, my heart beating so wildly it felt like it would split open, like a tithe of first fruits on an altar.
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I thought that yes, time would be cruel to me. The winters would leave their mark upon me, year after year, and one day I would die and Matilda would lock my body in a tomb. But until that morning came, I would spend my hours worshipping her,
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I am yours, Red. I will always be yours. Not even Death can change that.”
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Once there is a child, you begin to see how quickly the days pass. How the sennights melt like ice beneath the sun. The seasons spin faster, the years suddenly feel much shorter. You hardly feel your own age, or how the years have marked you, until you measure them against those of a child.
97%
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“I would wait a thousand years for you,” Vincent said. “If you asked me, I would wait for you until only my bones remained upon an altar. But if you must leave again, then let me follow you, Red.”
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She was many things. She was words and souls, spring and iron. She was rivers. And none of them could ever be stolen from her.
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I lifted my face to the rain, to the dark sky, to the clouds that hid the stars. And I imagined what might come from a single word. A single letter sent bravely into the ether.