Page 72 of Queen of Whispers and Mist

As soon as she clamped down around him, his climax crested, and he spilled inside her. It was so intense his vision went black at the edges, and he had to clench his eyes shut. The thundering of his heart in his ears was the only thing he was aware of until she shifted above him. In case she thought she was going anywhere anytime soon, he tightened his grip on her hips.

“Stay,” he grunted.

It was all he could manage.

“Ronan.” There was an uncertain note threaded through his name. One that didn’t belong after the way she’d been screaming it only moments prior.

The realization cleared his mind of its pleasure-drunk fog. “Yes, kitten?”

“You found me.”

His body went utterly still, his breath leaving him as if a fist had just been slammed into his lungs. His eyes snapped open, finding hers peering down at him. There was a new weight to her gaze, a recognition that hadn’t been there since he found her in the marketplace. A low hum started in his ears as electric tingles raced just beneath his skin.

Could it be?

Terrified he was about to make a heinous misstep, especially after how she reacted last time, but unable to ignore what his gut was screaming at him, he hesitantly ventured, “Reyna?”

Her answering smile was tremulous, wobbling at the edges as tears misted her eyes. “Hi.”

Everything slammed into him at once. Joy. Disbelief. Gratitude. Shock.

She remembered.

After all this time... Reyna was back.

CHAPTER23

REYNA

The return of her memories wasn’t the momentous occasion one might expect. It was akin to stepping across a threshold. One second, she was outside the gate; the next, the entirety of her past was laid out before her. There was no disorientation or shock. She knew who she was, who she’d been, how she’d gotten here and everything in between.

The fact that their return was heralded by the most explosive orgasm of her life, well... maybe there’d been a bit more fanfare than she realized.

Ronan sat up, the shift reminding her he was still very much buried inside her. She had to bite her lip to fight a moan as he took her face between his hands, his eyes searching hers.

“How?”

“I’m not sure.”

She’d let Ronan believe he was responsible for her sudden recovery—after everything he’d done to save her, he deserved to be the hero. And there was no denying his presence these last few weeks had gone a long way to breaking through the fog, but a quick flick of her eyes to the lagoon on their right told her it was a more likely culprit. With the pool’s miraculous healing properties, it only made sense the water had undone the years of mental tampering Erebos had performed on her.

Or maybe it was a combination of the two. Ronan’s soul tugging on the threads of hers and the water there to wash away whatever barriers the High Lord had left in her mind.

Whatever the reason, she was beyond grateful.

She ran the tips of her fingers through his hair and feathered her lips over his. “Must be because of you, I guess.”

An awestruck grin lit up his face for a second before he laughed and shook his head. “Well, I’ll be damned. He was right.”

“Who?”

“Bast. He told me saving you required true love’s kiss.”

Heat that had nothing to do with embarrassment crept into her cheeks. “We did a fair bit more than kiss.”

“Aye.” His smile returned. “That we did, love. Perhaps he simply mistranslated.”

Reyna laughed. Being with him like this made her giddy. She couldn’t remember the last time laughter ever came so freely. “Are you trying to say that there’s such a thing as ‘true love’s fuck’?”

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