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She scoffed and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. “We need to talk.”
My stomach dropped like I’d leaped from the roof at Roc Palace without snapping open my wings.
Was this the moment she planned on leaving me? After all we had been through? After how much I had changed?
“I heard you last night, talking to Drazen and Rares.”
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the edge of my chair.She was going to abandon me, just like I had feared, but not because the other male was coming – because I fucked up. “I can’t lose you, Izidora.” My voice was all anguish as I fought the overwhelming urge to snatch her into my arms and hold her hostage so this crushing pain in my chest would leave instead.
She knelt in front of me, her soft, tiny hands covering mine. A soothing caress licked up my arms and into my chest, and I welcomed the reprieve she offered. “I know you are scared, Ruslan. But taking my choice away isn’t the answer. Talking to me is.”
She was right. With everything that had happened over the last day, I was not thinking rationally. I should have told her that I was terrified. She made me better, and I fell back into what I knew the moment I felt the crushing anxiety of almost losing her to burnout. “I love you, Izidora. You make me feel… loved. I don’t want to lose this feeling I’ve wanted for so long. You almost died yesterday. I almost lost you then. And then the thought of you returning to him… I can’t bear it.” I needed her skin touching mine. I pulled her into my lap and buried my head in her neck, and roses calmed me as I inhaled her floral scent.
And she did exactly what I needed in that moment. She wrapped her arms around me, then rocked in a soothing motion, back and forth, back and forth. “I know you’re scared, Ruslan. I know you love me. And I know I love you. But more than that, I understand you, and you understand me. And being understood is the most precious feeling in this entire world. I will not give that up.”
She understood me better than anyone. She knew what I needed and when. She loved me. She accepted me. She did not want to leave.
“I’m not worthy of you.” I said the words, hoping she would refute them.
She did, and every muscle relaxed because of it. “Yes, you are. It will always be us against the world.”
“Sprite,” I croaked, nuzzling her neck. “I am so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?” My plea was desperate, needy, but I did not care as I begged.
“You have to be honest with me. Do you have something?” she asked, her voice carrying a hint of wariness, and I hated myself for putting it there.
Nodding, I pulled out the ring that had become an unwelcome weight in my pocket. “Rares enchanted your ring with magic.” Without hesitation, I chucked it into the fire. I knew it was wrong the second he handed it to me, and I would spend the rest of my life atoning for the fact that I dared think of controlling her like that. “I will get you a new one. We can pick it out together, and I promise to never alter it with magic.”
Her featherlight kiss was filled with forgiveness and a chance for redemption. “Thank you for being honest with me. What else do you need to feel okay?”
One action would burn away all fear from where it rooted in my heart. “Accept our mating bond.”
“Ruslan… I have to tell you something.” Her voice had dropped to a whisper, and alongside it, my heart plummeted to the earth. I held my breath, waiting for the rejection to fall.
“Zuriel was there the day the Goddess’s Prophecy was spoken,” she said slowly.
My brow furrowed. “I already knew that.”
Her chest expanded against mine as she sucked in a deep breath. “But did you know that in the original language, the prophecy called for two mates?”
I did not. The chair caught me as I was too stunned to sit upright. My hand covered my open mouth. All this time… I interpreted it in the modern language.
How could I have been so foolish?
“There is a choice…” I murmured, dumbstruck.
“And this choice will determine the fate of the world.”
My hands found her hips, and I spun her to straddle me. I wanted to see her face as I professed every feeling to her. The choice was between following the light and descending into dark. That choice was not only for her, but for all of us. And my actions since we’d arrived in the Iron Realm showed me that I knew what was right.
“I choose to follow the light. Your light.” I kissed her neck, just above the point where her pulse fluttered under my touch. “Darkness still reigns inside me, but you – you are my very reason for breathing. You are the star that guides my way in the blackest nights. You are filled with fire and spirit and that is why you are my sprite. We bring out the light and the dark in each other. We balance each other. We are better together.”
She blinked rapidly, eyes so blue and filled with love that the final layer of ice around my heart melted away. But the set of her brow told me she was also afraid.
“The weight of the world… it’s so heavy. What if I make the wrong choice and doom us all?” she whispered, eyes pinching at the corners.
My redemption started then.
I crushed her to my chest, comforting her as she had comforted me through my arc of anxiety. “I know you want a choice, and I will fight my every fear of you leaving me to give you that. Whatever choice you make will be the right one.”
