Cassian turned fully toward her, his other hand coming up to cradle her jaw. “Not for a godsdamn second. You saved me, Seraphine. And I’m not just talking about the Hollow. You pulled me out of the wreckage of who I was and gave me something real.”
Her throat tightened. She pressed her palm flat against his chest, where his heart beat hard and steady beneath the scars. “It’s not just us anymore.”
He stilled. “What?”
She looked up, tears burning the corners of her eyes—not from fear. From something fiercer. Brighter.
“I’m pregnant.”
It was almost funny, the way all breath left his lungs at once. He blinked like he hadn’t heard her right. “You’re…?”
She nodded. “Three moons.”
He stepped back, just half a pace, like he needed space to take it in—but his hand never left hers.
“Gods,” he breathed. Then, softer. “We’re really doing this.”
“We are.”
Something cracked in his expression then, some old barrier falling away, and he pulled her against him like the world would rip them apart if he didn’t. His lips found her hairline, then her temple, then lower, slower, over her cheekbone, her jaw. He held her like a man desperate to etch her into his skin.
He carried her over to the bed all smiles and laughter.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“Where I can make suer you remain with child,” he growled as he kissed her neck and laid her down under the skylight.
The wind quieted.
The obsidian cliffs no longer howled, no longer threatened to swallow the sky. The sea burned quietly below, ash rolling in smoky tendrils over black stone.
There was nothing chasing them.
Justthem.
Cassian’s laugh had just faded. The one about their child being worse than both of them. When Seraphine shifted beside him, one bronze-toned leg slipping over his thigh. Her hand stayed over her belly, but her eyes found his in the dark. That gold-flecked fire hadn’t dimmed. If anything, it shimmered with something new. Softer. Wilder.
“Cassian,” she murmured, voice low like a secret, “do you know the last time we touched like this without battle on our backs?”
His hand slid up her waist, over the subtle shimmer of scales that caught in the moonlight. “Never.”
She nodded. “So don’t waste tonight pretending we’re still running.”
He didn’t need more than that.
Cassian rolled to face her fully, dragging her into his arms with a groan so deep it rumbled through his chest. His storm-gray eyes flashed. Literal flickers of inner lightning threading behind his lashes as his mouth claimed hers.
She moaned against him, one hand sliding into his hair, fingers threading through black strands streaked with silver. “Gods, you taste like smoke,” she whispered. “Like home.”
He pulled her onto his lap in one smooth motion, strong hands settling at her hips, guiding her over the hard line of his cock through the thin layer of his leathers. “Then stay right here,” he growled. “Burn with me.”
Seraphine rocked her hips against him, grinding slowly until his breath hitched and his grip tightened.
“I missed this,” she said softly, kissing down the side of his throat. “Not just your cock—though I definitely missed that, too.”
Cassian let out a shaky laugh, the sound cut off by a hiss when her fingers dragged over his belt.
She undid him with practiced hands, eyes locked to his as she peeled back the final barrier between them. His cock sprang free—thick, flushed, already leaking at the tip.
