Page 73 of Queen of Whispers and Mist

His arms wrapped tightly around her waist. “I don’t need to say anything. I’m holding the truth in my arms.”

“You think quite highly of yourself, don’t you?”

“Well... I mean...”

Another laugh slipped free. The man always had been confident to the point of arrogance. She would have loved to bring him down a peg or two, if only for the sake of everyone else who’d have to deal with him now. But... she couldn’t. They deserved this moment of unadulterated bliss.

“Erebos...” she started. There was so much to say, so many things he needed to know, but Ronan stopped her with a kiss.

“Please don’t say that bastard’s name while I’m inside you, kitten.”

“But we—”

“Need to talk. I know. And we will, but can we just enjoy this fucking miracle a while longer before ruining it? It’s been five years, Reyna. Five fucking years. Do you have any idea...”

“I’m sorry.”

“Mother, don’t apologize. What happened isn’t your fault.”

“I know, but I’d have spared you the pain if I could.”

A dark cloud rolled through his eyes. “There are a lot of things I would go back and do differently if I could. But loving you isn’t one of them. So what if it hurts? At least that means I know it’s real.”

“Love shouldn’t hurt, Ronan.”

“You misunderstand. Loving you doesn’t hurt. It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It was losing you that nearly did me in. I wish I could say I was a good man, that I was worthy of you, but—”

This time it was she who stopped him with a kiss. “My hands are far from clean, Ronan. We do not need to compare sins. I know all that I need to know. And knowing what I do, I can say with complete certainty, there is nowhere else I’d rather be than right here, with you.”

A shudder ran down the length of his body, and he squeezed his eyes shut, a ragged breath leaving him. “Reyna, I—” He opened his eyes, and what she found staring back at her took her breath away. “I missed you so fucking much.”

She pressed her palm to the soft scrape of his beard. “I missed you too. Five years is a long time.”

“For you, I’d wait a hundred.”

“Really?” she teased. “You don’t think you would have eventually moved on?”

“Moved on?” He looked so offended by the implication she couldn’t help but laugh. “Reyna, the only thing that would have made me give up on finding you is learning you were already dead. In fact, it nearly did. And do you know what happened? I didn’tmove on. I tried to join you.”

Her heart shattered. “Oh, Ronan. I wouldn’t have wanted that.”

“I know, but... I was hardly in a place where I could think past my pain. The truth is, kitten, I don’t want to exist in a world that doesn’t have you in it.”

The raw honesty, his heartbreak, it slayed her.

“You are mine, Reyna,” he fiercely vowed. “My woman, my mate, my future. There is no adventure, not even death, that I will not face by your side.”

She’d fallen in love with him long ago. Somewhere between him waltzing uninvited into her forest and kissing her scars when she’d nearly lost her sight to Rowena’s war. But here, in this moment, she finally understood the depth of it.

Reyna didn’t realize she was crying until Ronan brushed a tear off her cheek. This time their kiss tasted of tears, but also hope. So much hope.

“I love you,” she breathed.

“I love you more.”

“I didn’t realize it was a competition.”

“With us? Sweetheart, it’s always a competition. That’s half the fun.”

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