Page 124 of Emylia

Like something sacred I’d never believed I deserved.

This moment—the warmth around me, the weight of his arm anchoring me to the world—it was perfection. There was nothing more exquisite than falling asleep in the arms of the man I was in love with.

Love.

Shit.

Oh Gods.

Lying here beside him, my skin still humming with the ghost of his touch, the truth slammed into me.

I was in love with him.

Irrevocably.

Undeniably.

Completely.

The kind of love that didn’t sneak in. It raged through the walls. It took everything I had and still demanded more. It razed me to the ground. And I wanted it to. I wanted him to tear down every damn wall if it meant I got to keep him.

I wanted to give him everything. My love. My grief. My hope. Even the pieces I never let anyone see.

But I couldn’t. Because grief is tricky. It wears the skin of hunger. It whispers like comfort when it comes dressed as someone who sees you—when you can't bear to be seen.

Maalikai hadn’t been a mistake.

He’d been my escape.

My silence.

My storm.

And for a little while—wrapped in his calm, kissed by the frost of his devotion—I let myself believe I was ready. That this was it.

That he was who I would choose.

But as the silence deepened and his heartbeat thudded steadily against my back… another ache took root.

Not for the man holding me.

But for the one who wasn’t.

Sebastian.

Gods, just thinking his name scorched.

Because no matter how badly I wanted Maalikai—and I did, with a ferocity that scared the hell out of me—it didn’t erase the wildfire I carried for Sebastian.

Sebastian was fire.

Not a candle.

A fucking inferno.

He didn’t just love me—hesawme. Held me when I was ashes and made me believe I could rise again.

If Maalikai was the eye of the storm—cold, still, devastating—Sebastian was the storm.

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