Page 61 of Ashes of Honor

“Come back to the rocks with me?” he asked, falling to his back and pulling me toward the beach.

I closed my eyes, floating, his arm steady beneath my shoulders, guiding me effortlessly through the water. The waves lapped at my sides. When the pebbled, sandy floor tickled my toes, I opened my eyes, blinking against the fading sunlight. Letting go of his hand as we waded to the shoreline wasn’t an option I was willing to consider.

Harley pranced toward us, licking the salty water off my arms and legs. I pulled my shirt and shorts back on, leaving my weapons off to the side. I didn’t need them right now. Not with him by my side. The fear left my body when we fought together.

Three crows flew above our heads in tight arrow formation. Their caws echoed sharply against the sky. I tracked them until they fluttered out of sight, my gaze settling back on the sand and rock melting into the fiery hues of the setting sun. But Alexiares wasn’t watching the sunset. His eyes were on me. Unflinching. It made me feel as though I were the only thing worth noticing. Rare was a moment untouched by chaos with us. Far too rare.

“You’ve been staring at me nonstop the last few days,” I said, shaking my head and hiding a tender smile on my shoulder. “More than usual. I’m starting to feel like prey.”

“Amaia …”

“I love you,” I interrupted.

The words weren’t planned, but they were true—etched into every corner of my being. I’d been a coward to not have said them before now when I’d felt this way for months. From the moment that I woke until the time I closed my eyes at night, I wanted to be by his side. Every meal was incomplete unless we shared it. In those rare moments of relief, I found them best spent with him. But of all the terrors in this broken world, love was the most foolish to fear.

Alexiares glanced away, his shoulders stiffening as if bracing for a blow. His throat bobbed with a hard swallow. “No.”

“No?”

“You don’t say those words.”

I was going to throw up and evidently, so was he. Panic carved itself across his face—caught somewhere between the urge to leap off a cliff and the temptation to stand at the edge, pretending the void wasn’t calling.

“The world as we know it is probably going to end … again. Is being in love truly such a terrible thing?”

He froze, my words cutting through whatever storm brewed in his head. His eyes darted away, then back to me, guilt flickering in their depths.

“No,” he said, his voice soft. Tender in a way I’d never heard from him before. “I don’t think it’s a terrible thing at all, Princess.” He tilted his head, those eyes of his locking onto mine and I knew, somehow, I was the only thing keeping him tethered. “Especially if that love is coming from you.”

Heat rose to my cheeks. “Okay, then say it back,” I demanded. “Because I feel really fucking stupid over here.”

A slow, lopsided smile tugged at his lips. “How about I say it back for the rest of our lives?”

“You’re crazy,” I muttered. Was my heart fluttering inside my chest like a butterfly with rabies? Absolutely. I could only hope he couldn’t hear it.

“And you’re insane,” he countered, his face hanging low to capture me in a kiss. Sweet and sobering.

When we broke apart, his hands lingered on my face, his thumb brushing over my cheek. He leaned in close, his breath warm between us. “I don’t feel like such a monster when I’m with you. Stuck in that pit of hell Sloan called a home, you made yourself a safe space for me when you didn’t have to. Fuck, it would’ve been easier for you if you hadn’t. I didn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt—not with you, not with the lies I’ve told or the past I’ve hidden. You walked through flames with me, Amaia, several times despite everyone’s best wishes. And that … that’s just one thing on a list of many that makes you one hell of a woman.”

I swallowed hard, his words unraveling me, but I kept quiet.

“There’s compassion in your heart, that you refuse to let the world strip away,” he continued. The emotion and devotionin which he spoke moved me to tears. “You don’t hide it; you wear it on your sleeve and dare anyone to take it from you. It’s fascinating, truly. That’s not even one of the top five reasons I admire you. You gave me freedom when I didn’t think I deserved it. You forgave me without saying the words, even knowing every awful thing I’ve done. And you love me anyway.

“The way you make me feel … fuck, I don’t know what to do with myself. Jump for joy like an idiot? Fall to my knees and thank a God I’m not even sure I believe in for allowing me to breathe the same air as you? When I’m away from you, all I feel is an ache that doesn’t stop until you’re back in my arms. And that leads me to the most important point of my life: There was a time when I didn’t think I’d live past twenty, and then twenty-five. At twenty-eight, I’m still here and for once, I don’t hate it. I want to grow old and I want to do that with you.”

He grabbed my left hand, dropping to his knee. My heart lurched as he fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a ring. My ring.Thering.

“Holy shit,” I gasped, snatching my hands away and covering my mouth. “You keep a lot of weird shit in your pockets,Bloodhound, but this? This was the last thing I expected. Have you been carrying that around for months?”

“Ever since I realized it will always be you.”

I grew anxious and pulled him into another kiss. From hatred, love is born. It had been less than a year since Alexiares had walked into my life, but everything with him felt unarguably right. Like I was in the right place at the right time and though everything else around me fell apart, he was my sun. My North Star. I would always orbit around him. Drawn inescapably by the gravity of who he was. I poured every unspoken promise into that kiss, every shred of hope I dared to hold on to in a world that threatened to strip it away.

His hand found mine when I pulled away, his touch deliberate, certain. The edges of the coffin-shaped ring caught the light, scattering faint prisms in the falling light.

“I understand,” he began, his voice thick with emotion, “that you have … fears about love. About spending forever with someone. And I don’t blame you for that, Amaia. I don’t fear death. If I’m honest, I would take a never-ending amount of painful deaths if only it meant I got to spend another moment with you. The only thing I fear in this world is living a life without Amaia Bennett—soon to be Drakos—in it.”

My lips twitched into a smile, a warmth blooming in my chest that I couldn’t suppress. “I said you’re my infinity, didn’t I? Promise me something?” I whispered.

---