The night air was cool against my skin, but I barely felt it. Not with Kai so close. After the ceremony, after the words we spoke and the vows we weren't sure we understood, we had stepped into the tent where everything we'd avoided came rushing back between us.
He looked at me like I was something fragile. Something distant. But I wasn't fragile—I was burning from the inside out.
I moved first, untangling the layers of cloth around my shoulders, watching his eyes follow every motion. "You keep staring like you expect me to vanish," I whispered.
He stepped closer, his voice a rasp. "Because I do. Every time I think I have you… you slip away."
"Then hold me," I said.
His hands were hesitant as they slid up my arms and around my waist, pulling me against him. And when our lips met again, this time, there was no fear—just need. Years of it. Denial had only sharpened it, made it raw. I kissed him like I hated him for waiting this long. Like I loved him for surviving it with me.
My back hit the blankets, soft and warm beneath us, and I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding as he settled over me. His weight, his warmth, the way his lips found my throat—it was all overwhelming. But I wanted it. I wanted all of him, not just his promises.
Clothes slipped away piece by piece, as though they'd never belonged between us. His fingers were gentle at first, almost reverent, like he needed to learn every inch of me again. I responded to his touch with a gasp, threading my fingers through his hair, pulling him closer when he hesitated.
"You don't have to be careful," I said, voice low. "Not tonight."
His eyes met mine, and in them I saw the truth he never said out loud—how much he missed me, how many nights he probably dreamed of this, and how afraid he was it wouldn't be real tomorrow.
He kissed me deeply, then lowered himself to me with a tenderness I wasn't prepared for. Our bodies fit together like they always had, but now, it wasn't rushed or desperate. It was slow. Intimate. Every movement filled with emotion we didn't have words for.
I arched into him, gasping softly as he moved inside me, a rhythm that stole my breath with every motion. My hands roamed his back, fingers digging into his skin, needing to feel him grounded in this reality with me. Each kiss, each thrust, was a silent vow—a promise that we still belonged to each other, even after everything.
"Kai…" I whispered, breathless, lost. "Don't let go."
"I won't," he said into my neck, voice trembling with the same emotion tangled in my chest. "I'm here, Anna. I'm not going anywhere."
When we finally reached that edge together, I cried out his name, and he held me through it, his body trembling as he buried his face against my shoulder.
Afterward, we didn't speak. We didn't need to. He pulled the blanket over us, and I curled into him, resting my head on his chest, feeling the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath my ear.
In that stillness, I felt something change. Maybe not the world. Not the wars waiting for us beyond the hills. But something inside me. A piece of me that had been cold for far too long had finally begun to thaw.
And I didn't feel afraid.
Not with him breathing beside me.
I don't remember when I fell asleep.
Kai's arms were wrapped around me, his breath brushing the top of my head, the warmth of his chest steady beneath my cheek. I should have been at peace. But something stirred inside me—like a heartbeat not my own.
The pendant.
It had lain between us, forgotten on the blanket, but now… it pulsed with light. Soft at first. Then brighter. Rhythmic. Alive.
I stirred, lifting my head. "Kai…" I whispered, but he didn't wake. Instead, his body grew still, as if something beyond sleep had taken hold.
The pendant pulsed again, and I reached out.
The moment my fingers brushed it, the world around me shattered.
I stood in a field of stars.
Endless and silent.
I could see Kai—standing at a distance, his silhouette surrounded by white flame. And before him… was me. But not me. Not who I was now.
She wore white robes laced with gold and bore wings of soft light folded behind her shoulders. Her eyes—my eyes—glowed like burning silver, and the pendant hovered just above her chest, spinning slowly, shedding threads of time.
"This is what could be," a voice echoed—neither male nor female, but ancient and everywhere.
I reached out. "What is this? What's happening?"
The vision-Kai took my hand. "This union… awakened something that was always meant to be. The bond was forged long ago, broken, and now restored. The path forward is no longer hidden, but it will demand more than love."
"What do you mean?" I asked. My voice felt small in the vastness. "What will it demand?"
"Sacrifice," the voice answered.
The stars dimmed. Shadows crept across the edges of the vision.
I saw flashes: a battlefield soaked in flame, Kai bleeding from a wound that shimmered with dark energy, myself standing alone atop a shattered tower, the pendant cracked in my hand—glowing from within even as it broke.
I saw myself screaming his name, felt the same pain I thought I buried.
Then I saw a different image—one with hope.
Kai and I standing side by side. Older. Weathered. Surrounded by a circle of light, with others behind us—those we had saved, those we had lost, and a child between us holding a crystal shard.
The voice returned, softer now. "What is forged in love can be wielded in war. But love alone is not enough. You must choose again, and again, and again."
I gasped awake, breath caught in my throat. The vision burned behind my eyes like an afterimage.
Kai stirred. "Anna…? What's wrong?"
"The pendant," I said, my voice trembling. "It showed me something. Us. A future. But also… pain. Loss. Everything we're afraid of."
His brow furrowed. He sat up, the blanket falling around his waist. "What did you see?"
I looked into his eyes, my hand finding his instinctively. "That this night wasn't just about love. It was a vow… and a warning."
The pendant, still glowing faintly, now pulsed in harmony with our heartbeats.
Something had been awakened between us. A deeper magic. A fate we'd rewritten together.
And now, it would begin.
I sat there trembling, my breath uneven, the images from the vision still seared into the backs of my eyes. The battlefield. The pain. The possibility of losing him again. My hands curled into the blanket, nails digging into the fabric.
Kai moved closer, slowly, carefully—like approaching a frightened animal.
"Anna," he said softly, voice rich with concern, "look at me."
I couldn't. Not yet. My body was here, but part of me was still floating in that space between stars and fate.
Then I felt him—his hands gently slipping around my waist as he pulled me into his lap. My legs folded against his, my body fitting against him like we were two halves being drawn back together. His warmth surrounded me, grounding me.
He leaned in, his lips brushing against my bare shoulder, then slowly up the curve of my neck. A kiss—soft and lingering. Then another, just below my ear. I shivered, but not from fear this time.
"I've got you," he whispered, his voice like a low hum against my skin. "You're here. You're safe."
I let out a shaky breath as his arms tightened around me, one hand gently stroking up and down my back. Every slow kiss he placed along my neck sent the chaos retreating. I felt the storm inside me quieting, bit by bit.
"You saw something," he murmured, "but you're not alone in it."
"I was scared," I admitted, my voice raw. "It felt like everything we just built could fall apart again. That we'd lose each other."
Kai pulled back just enough to look into my eyes. "Then we won't let it. We fight it. Together."
Tears slipped down my cheeks before I could stop them. He caught one with his thumb, brushing it away before leaning in again—his lips finding mine in a kiss that was slow, steady, and full of unspoken promises.
"You ground me," I whispered against his mouth.
"And you give me purpose," he said. "Whatever comes… I'll be with you through all of it. Even the dark parts. Especially the dark parts."
The pendant at my chest pulsed once more, warmer now—less like a warning, more like a response. As if it too had calmed. As if it recognized his presence beside me.
Wrapped in Kai's arms, his kisses still lingering on my skin, I let myself breathe again. I let myself believe—just for now—that love could steady what fate had shaken.
And I knew: I wouldn't face the coming trials alone.
Kai's touch was warmth and safety, and his whispered promises wrapped around me like a blanket. The vision's weight still lingered in my chest, but with every kiss he placed along my neck, every gentle stroke along my back, it felt lighter… less terrifying.
I let my head rest against his shoulder, feeling the slow, steady rise and fall of his breathing. My fingers clutched at his skin, as if letting go would send me spiraling back into that star-filled void.
"You're here," I murmured, the words barely more than breath. "You're really here…"
"I'm not going anywhere," he replied, holding me tighter.
I closed my eyes.
The last thing I felt was his lips brushing my temple—soft, reassuring—before exhaustion finally pulled me under. Not the kind of sleep that came from physical tiredness, but the kind born from emotional release. From fear unraveling into trust.
Even as my body relaxed, I didn't let go. My arms remained locked around him, my fingers curled against his back like if I loosened my grip, this moment would slip through my hands like everything else had before.
"Kai…" I murmured once more, half-asleep now, "just… stay with me. Please."
His hand gently caressed my hair, and he whispered into the dark, "Always, Anna. I'll stay until you tell me to go—and even then, I'll find my way back to you."
And in his arms—safe, warm, steady—I finally surrendered to sleep.
But even in sleep, I refused to let go.