Page 95 of The Endless One

Elric wasn’t even going to deign to respond to that. He glared at her before standing. She had to catch him, as his legs wobbled, because he hadn’t walked in what felt like…

“Five weeks,” Sybil said as she tucked herself underneath his arm. “Five weeks and we’re still piecing everything back together. But I think she’d be happy.”

“Would she?”

“Considering how many people in this kingdom are now worshipping her?” She snorted. “I think she’ll be very pleased. She might not be our queen, but she is most certainly revered. Goddess. Queen. What’s the difference?”

“A lot, actually.”

“Semantics.” She looked up at him with a soft smile on her face. “But I’m still part of your coven, Deathless One. No matter how many folks are worshipping the Endless One, you will always be my god.”

“At least I still have one,” he muttered, before allowing her to help him onto a bench on the side of the street.

He stared at this new version of Inverholm, noticing that there were quite a few differences as well. Like witches walking down the street, using spells to magically lift objects out of the way. Ensorcelled quills that trailed along behind people taking notes on what they needed to fix. Women he knew were part of the coven, walking through these streets without a single hint of fear on their faces.

“A lot has changed,” Elric said through the thick emotions binding his throat.

Sybil sat down next to him on the bench and nodded. Spreading her arms behind herself, she said, “It has. I think we’re on the right track now, though. And I think it would be all right if you left for a bit.”

“If I left?”

“Well, someone has to go get her.” Again, that grin that always made her look like she was up to no good. “They are ready. And I believe so is she.”

She had spent five weeks in this place, watching the world she loved more than anything else change. It was strange to watch it do so, considering how long she had been planning this. Jessamine had spent so much of her life dreaming up what she wanted her kingdom to be.

Her mother had always said Inverholm was a place for everyone. It was a space for freedom of expression, artwork, and love. The queen had always made every choice she could to keep those ideals safe. There were so many places in this world that did not appreciate the differences in others. She knew that some would need a safe harbor and a family that they could build without judgment.

Jessamine had only ever wanted to uphold the same things as her mother. But she hadn’t ever understood why the queen had felt like that until she had seen it for herself. The help that the people in her kingdom were willing to give each other, even after such a horrible thing, was a blessing to watch.

Because she could see it all. All she had to do was conjure a pool with the desire to look. She sat by the edge of that pool for hours on end, making sure that she saw every single stage of it. She watched as people were brought back to life by witches they had spurned for years. How people who had hated each other put aside their differences just so they could help their neighborhood rebuild after all they had lost. Mothers took in children who weren’t theirs, keeping them safe and well fed until their own families were brought back to life.

She watched her coven make sacrifices that weren’t of blood or pain. They were sacrifices of good wishes. Songs that were meant to heal aching wounds. Whispers of dirty secrets that Jessamine would never have guessed at or known.

Gifts. They were all gifts to a goddess that her coven trusted.

She watched as Elric’s coven split as well. Some of them stayed to worship him, choosing to walk on a darker path that was no less right or wrong than walking with Jessamine. And she felt herself grow more and more restless.

But most of all, she watched him. Elric. Seated in the center of her city, keeping everything together like the glue he always had been. Even in his darkest days, she knew he had done everything he could to make sure that Inverholm was a better place than before.

If she’d thought she had been in love with him before all of this, now she was bursting with it. Her heart thundered in her chest, literally aching at being so far from him for such a long time. At least she got to see him. Even if he never moved from where he was. Never even shifted a single finger from where his arms wrapped around his legs, keeping him in place as he helped her fix her kingdom.

Bit by bit, they pieced her world back together. Jessamine kept her promise from the very first moment that she’d met him. She tore her kingdom apart for him. But now, he was helping her put it back together.

So when she watched the conversation between him and Sybil, she was so ready to see him. She leapt up from her pool, rushing to the edge of the realm she had built. Jessamine lingered where sunlight met moonlight, her toes flirting over the edge of darkness as she waited desperately for him to appear.

And then… there he was.

Elric walked out of the shadows like he’d always been there. He wore the same outfit he’d worn when she’d first seen him. All dark fabric, with a bare pale chest that seemed to glow in the moonlight and then come to life as he slowly stepped over to her side.

She backed away from him, step by step. Leading him into the sunlight of her realm before she flashed him a grin and bolted.

He chased her. Because of course he did.

Elric would never let her run from him, no matter how fast or how far she tried to go. But she knew that her giggles were floating back to him through the air, and she wanted him to join her at a specific place. She wanted this reunion to be everything they deserved.

So when they arrived at a massive willow tree that spilled its tendrils down into a river that split through her sunlit realm, she let him catch her. She paused, breathing hard, feeling his arms coming around her waist and tugging her against him. And it was so… right.

Tears burned beneath her eyes as she shut them, leaning her head back against his shoulder and just feeling him surrounding her once again. It had been so long. So long since she had touched him.