"With me?"
"With you." She settles into my lap. "My terrible shadow husband who makes perfect tea but can't cook."
"I haven't tried to cook."
"Good. Don't."
"I could learn."
"Please don't. Your tea is perfection. Leave it at that."
I pull her closer, and we sit in comfortable silence. We’ve settled into something new. Not peace exactly, but acceptance. The rage that drove her for three years has transformed into something else. Protection, maybe.
Purpose without vengeance.
"We're becoming something, aren't we?" she says against my chest. "Known. Feared."
"Does that bother you?"
"No. If others fear us, they won't try what the Collector did. They won't create more monsters." She sits up, meets my eyes. "We could be the threat that keeps other threats in line."
"The monster that hunts monsters."
"And the human who loves him."
"Is that what you are? A human who loves a monster?"
She touches my face, traces the silver veins visible beneath my skin. "You're not a monster. You're mine."
"Yours," I agree.
That night, I wake to find her standing on the balcony, looking out at the impossible stars. I join her, wrapping my arms around her from behind.
"Can't sleep?"
"Just thinking." She leans back against me. "The parasites. How many realms are they feeding on? How long before the boundaries collapse completely?"
"You want to hunt."
"I want to protect. There's a difference."
"Is there?"
She turns in my arms. "Yes. Hunting was about me, my pain, my revenge. Protecting is about everyone else. The realms that can't defend themselves against things that exist between existence."
"We could do that. Travel the boundaries. Kill parasites that shouldn't exist."
"We?"
"Obviously. You think I'd let you have all the fun?"
She smiles, and it's sharp and beautiful. "The Void Walker and his bride, terrifying the things that terrify reality."
"We should get business cards."
"You don't even know what those are."
"Small rectangles that announce your presence. Mikaere explained them."
