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And then he was sprinting.

Crashing through the underbrush—no care for the width of his shoulders as he slammed into bark, or for the branches tangling in his crown of horns—Brand ran for his fucking life. He cleared the edge of the trees and found her outside the garden, her back to him as she peered into its stunning disarray.

“Luna,” he rasped.

She spun on a cry, their gazes meeting, and Brand broke.

His knees hit the ground. All at once, every pathetic piece of the emotionless armor fell away, his strength dissolving beneath that sea glass stare and leaving him stripped to his marrow.

Brand did what he set out to do. He’d shoved and stifled and swallowed everything back in order to find her and ensure she was safe. To bring them together again. The realization that it was over, that she was right there, standing on her own two feet…

Never before. He’d…he’d never wept as the Greater before.

Hands in the dirt, his tears watered the earth as wracking sobs were ripped from him—made all the worse when she slipped in close, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him in, his damned head almost half the size of her entire body.

A dam burst and it poured out of him like a flood. “I remember,” he croaked, sucking a shattered breath through clenched teeth. “I remember everything, and it’s…it’s too much. Sisters help me, it’s too fucking much and I don’t know what to do. I’m so sorry.”

All the words he imagined laying at her feet, the declarations he planned to make at their reunion, and one look at that perfect, moonlit face had him crumbling like a babe.

Her fingers ghosted over his cheekbones, hands dragging his hanging head up and forcing him to look at her. “I know. I’m here,” she murmured, lip trembling, “and my heart is yours. It will work well enough for the both of us until you’re whole again. Until the shadows we can’t see are dashed away to nothing.” She laid a petal-soft kiss on his brow and reached up to smooth a hand over one horn—right in the worn groove where he always did it himself. “It’s alright, I promise. You can come back to me, Brand. Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

So small. Luna was so fucking small, and she still managed to be the safest place in all of the Unknown.

“That’s it, Brand.” Back and forth, soothing him. “Come back. I’m right here.”

Even like this, he could deny her nothing.

Brand fumbled through the excruciating change, the Greater parts of him slowly disappearing bit by bit, until he was left with nothing to shield him from the fucking agony—except for Luna and the sanctuary she offered.

She freed her own sob and wrenched him into her arms, squeezing so damned tight it knocked the wind from him.

Home. Blessed Solyrian, he was finally home.

He crushed her in his own embrace and stood, her legs dangling as she misted them inside. They crashed onto the bed in a heap, but she never let go.

Luna never let go—until she did, and broke Brand all over again.

Dragging him up, she perched him on the edge of the bed, his bare feet planted on the floorboards.

“I’m going ten steps away, and I will be right back,” she said. “Don’t move.”

She misted, the sounds of clattering pottery carrying from somewhere across the house. A cupboard door slamming. Water splashing.

Another breath and she was there again, kneeling before him. She waved her hand⁠—

Ah…shite.

A basin of steaming water appeared, the scent of lavender wafting up. She plucked a linen from inside and wrung the excess out, then gripped him behind one calf and set his foot on her thigh.

The hot cloth running down his leg was a luxury he didn’t deserve, and wholly unnecessary after his dip in the lake. “Luna…”

She ignored him, humming instead as she drew slow strokes over his skin, switching to the other leg. Another cloth appeared in her grip and she raised up on her knees, lacing their fingers together and staring for a moment before she washed his hands, his arms. His chest and shoulders.

A third cloth, and she stood between his knees, tracing the path of the linen over his face with trembling fingertips. Her eyes danced between his, intent, like she was making sure he really was there with her.

He was. Sisters save him, he was.

Luna nodded and tossed the cloth aside, picking his hands up so they rested on her hips. “These words have left me too many times when you weren’t able to hear them. I need nothing in return, except the opportunity to finally say what I’ve wanted to for so long. Ever since you did the same for me in Argoph”—she threw a pointed look at the basin—“and I realized how deep my feelings went. I repaid you by running and then being shy at our reunion. Allow me to rectify my error in judgement.”