Page 116 of Beneath the Desert Bloom
“So?” she asked, finally. “Are you going to vanish again? Melt into the rock like a melancholy cryptid Cinderella?”
He didn’t answer right away. Just blinked once, slow.
“No.”
“That’s it? No poetic declaration? No dramatic refusal of freedom?”
He smiled a little, lines at the corners of his mouth deepening. “You don’t want poetic.”
She sighed. “Fine. But maybe try for a little dramatic tension.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.”
That broke something gently in her.
She leaned into him, not seeking comfort, not needing shelter. Just wanting closeness.
His arm came around her, low and easy, palm resting against the back of her ribs.
Nora breathed.
His scent filled her again, like earth and sun-warmed bark, iron and sage and something that had always made her think of dust before rain.
She didn’t say anything.
But she felt him speak it anyway.
Mine.
She pulled back enough to meet his eyes again.
They held there.
A long moment.
And in that silence, she saw it.
Not the creature who had taken her in the dark. Not the shadow she had chased across wind-ravaged dreams. Not the force who had swallowed his own fire to guard her through the bloom.
Just Asher.
Guardian. Lover. Witness.
And something gentler now.
Something hers.
“Has the land done this before?” she asked, voice dry.
“There was a time it tried,” he said. “A long time ago. But the ritual ended in destruction.”
His gaze flicked to her glowing skin.
“This is the first time it’s answered. The first time I have.”
The weight of that landed in her chest.
