Beneath the Alabaster Spire (The Immortal Orders, #2)

by Allison Carr Waechter

“Love you to the end of everything, baby girl,” he said, so softly she wondered if he was talking to himself.

She kissed him again. “You’re the only good thing they ever did. You are what’s good about them.” His eyes fell to her engagement ring, which he touched. “You are what’s good about me.” She shook her head. “That is not true. You are what’s good about you. You, Alaric, Petra… You’re all good in ways they aren’t. The three of you chose something else.”

She gripped his chin now, a mirror of what he’d done to her before, turning his stormy eyes to hers. “It is a choice to be good—to do good—one you make every single day despite them.” His eyes misted as she spoke. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”

Harlow wound every part of her with what she could of his. She let her shadows out, sending them through the threads that bound them tighter with each passing moment until his light responded, twining in amongst the darkness as they made wordless promises to one another. Vows that could not, would not, be broken by subterfuge or deception.

It was like he had said—there was no sense of possession between them. They were separate entities, powerful in their own right, but deeply connected now in a way they had not been previously.

“But you are the love of my life. I don’t need you to entertain me. I’m interested in everything you say and do.” His eyes softened as she spoke. “I am the luckiest person on the planet,” he said, wrapping her in his arms and rolling on top of her again. “I will love you to the end of everything,”