Page 134 of The Darkest Oath

His fingers curled into hers as he slipped his hand behind her back to pull her close.

“Then I rest my case,” she whispered before he kissed her with gentle lips.

“Good, I’m glad. Let’s get back to the path while there is daylight left,” he said, but they lingered for a moment longer.

The mountain air was cool against their skin. The graves stood silent, bathed in the golden light of the setting sun. The wind rustled through the wildflowers, carrying the faintest echo of laughter.

“It’s strange,” he said quietly as they walked back toward the archway. “It feels like they’re still here somehow.”

Cassandre smiled, threading her fingers through his brown waves. “Maybe love like that never really leaves. Maybe it’s in your blood.”

Rollant looked down at her, his heart swelling. “Maybe it is.”

“Well, whoever they were, one and the same, or not, you can tell their bonds were strong by their inscriptions, not just by your grandfather’s stories.”

Rollant pushed a stray piece of hair behind Cassandre’s ear before wrapping his arms around her. “Our bond will be extraordinary, too,” he whispered.

Cassandre kissed him before walking away with Rollant’s hand in hers, but Rollant looked back one last time.

The breeze whipped through the wildflowers as his gaze lingered on the stone etched with their names. A sense of pride stirred in him—pride in their love, their resilience. For the first time, a connection to the name he shared ignited in his heart. It was strange, he thought, how love endured. Long after the hearts that held it had stopped beating, it lingered—written in the land, whispered through time, and carried in the stories and generations who came after. He would tell his future children the stories his grandfather had passed down, and he would bring them here when they were older.

They stepped back onto the path, leaving the past behind them but weaving its fingerprints into the promise of their legacy ahead.

---