Page 92 of Too Dangerous To Die

“You’re alive,” I cry into his neck. “You’rehere.”

His arms wrap around me, tight. Fierce. Real.

“I thought I was gone.”

“You were,” I whisper, pulling back just enough to see his face. “But I brought you back. I gave you half my soul.”

His gaze darkens, full of wonder and anguish. “Nora, you shouldn’t have?—”

“Iwantedto,” I say, cutting him off with trembling hands cradling his face. “Ichoseto. Because I love you, too.”

Then I kiss him.

Iin a world that’s tried to take everything from us?—

He kisses me back.

Not with desperation.

Not with hunger.

But with something terrifying in its gentleness.

Hope.

43

RHAEGAR

Three weeks.

That’s how long it's been since she gave me half her soul and shattered every truth I thought I knew about Protheka.

Three weeks since the last scream echoed through the ruined sanctum, since the pact was severed, since death came for me—and she made it kneel.

And now…

Now, we live.

Not hidden or hunted.

Just…quiet.

The mountains rise around us like sleeping gods, ancient and untouched. Their peaks vanish into cloud-thick skies, their valleys laced with rivers that whisper old songs through pines older than the Purna line. Our home rests nestled between stone and sky, built into the cliffs themselves—half carved from earth, half shaped from memory. A sanctuary of wood, firelight, and the soft scent of wildflowers she’s begun growing along the eastern wall.

I never imagined a place like this could exist.

Not for me.

Not forus.

Nora moves like she belongs here.

Barefoot in the grass. Hair down, unbound by duty or fear. Her laughter threads through the wind sometimes, soft and unguarded, as if the weight of our story finally slipped from her shoulders the moment she chose to live again.

And me?

I still wake in the middle of the night, waiting for the world to shatter.

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