Wild ​Reverence

by Rebecca Ross

War only makes love flame brighter, defiant. It seems to bloom from the bloodshed you leave behind, unfurling from the most unlikely places. From the broken seams of the world. From the graves and the anguish and the fear you inspire.”

This is the beginning of the end, I thought. If heartless gods can be made soft by such love, we are all doomed.

“If you call for me, I will answer.”

And I had never desired to be a god, to wield power as one, but in that moment, I longed to halt time. I would have made an interlude for us, a space when the hour lost its bite and the sun stood still.

“Because she is yours, as you are hers,” Bade replied quietly. “And she is precious to me.”

I was trembling, and I wanted to hide it from her. How weak I must seem. But then I realized I wanted her to see me bare. I was weak for her alone, and I wanted her to know it. I did not want to keep anything from her.

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.

My name was destined to be blotted out of the divine myths and perhaps even forgotten amongst the poets and the bards as the seasons wheeled onward. Time did not favor such quiet stories. Once, I had feared this, until I realized my story was not one to be devoured by strangers. No, this was for him and for me.