Page 86 of The Soulbond and Her Beloved

Then, he swept her into his arms, lifting her off her feet in a fiercely possessive hug. "Thank you for bringing this faraway dream of mine close enough to touch."

Chapter nineteen

BENEATH THE SHADOWS

Thatnight,GrandLordVladya stood by the door, gazing at the figure sleeping exhaust upon his bed. He had been standing there for some time now, barely noticing the passage of time.

A part of him still expected this to be ripped from his grasp. Torn away like every other good thing before it.

Even now, it felt surreal. Unbelievable.

He had a female.His.

And she carried his child.

No one beyond their small circle knew of it. Vladya had not yet shared the news with his people. In time, he would.

But for now, secrecy was its own form of protection. The more concealed she remained, the safer she—and the child—would be.

His family.

Emotion thickened his throat. An ache both familiar and foreign. Those were words he never thought he would speak.

Words he never imagined would be something real, something his own.

Vladya’s eyes drifted to the sheets draped over her form, shielding her belly. He knew not what he sought to find, yet in the past few hours, he had looked at that belly more than he had in months.

How could something that once seemed so distant—like a far-off dream—suddenly be within his reach?

His thoughts turned to his conversation with the Oracle earlier.

"Is there anything more I can do? Something different to make these spells work?"Vladya had asked.

"Aekeira has done most of the work,"the Oracle had replied."She is making you feel again, as one might raise dead bones. The more you feel, the greater your chance of regaining your soul. And the more these rituals work, the more you will feel and express."

"So it all centers upon feeling."

"And living. They go hand in hand. For one to truly live, they must feel. And for one to truly feel, they must live."

Vladya’s mind returned, and once more he was seeing Aekeira's sleeping form.

He had lived more in these past few years than he had in centuries. All because of this small, blessed human girl who had been placed into his cold and barren existence.

Turning, he walked out, closing the door quietly behind him. Yaz fell into step with him as he strode through the hallway, out of the Citadel to his cave.

Hidden, deep within the woods, it was a place he claimed for himself alone.

Vladya eye's swept over the uneven walls, taking it in. He had first come here after his fifth bonding ritual had failed—three millennia past.

The memory had long since blurred, but he recalled wandering the woods that night, suffocating under the weight ofloss and heartbreak. Then, by chance or fate, he had stumbled upon this cave. He had entered, pressed his hands to the cold stone walls, and let his tears fall.

And so, he had returned to this place, time and time again, whenever life had proven its cruelty.

Until, eventually, he had stopped coming.

For centuries, the tragedies had continued. But he no longer felt them. Numb. Lifeless.

Tonight, he stood here once more, looking at the uneven ground, at the darkness stretching before him. He took in the silver flow of the waterfall spilling down one side of the cavern, and the feeling he had been suppressing all day broke free. Hot tears spilled from his eyes.

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