Rowan and I glance at each other, and his hand reaches out to weave his fingers through mine.
Ceri’s sharp blue eyes latch onto that connection. “Love that deep, that ultimate, breaks even the gods’ work.”
“What does that mean?” I ask. Hope flutters. “The curse is broken?”
She lifts her hand, and the air hums. “But it does not erase punishment.”
Rowan’s jaw tightens.
“Again, you defied divine law, Rowan,” she says calmly. “You claimed the heart of a mortal, you laid in sin with her, and you bled holy blood into the soil.”
“I gave myself freely!” I say. “As you said, our souls were destined to be together.”
“And that is the only reason why you live,” she snaps, her annoyance palpable. I shrink back.
“You’re letting us go?” Rowan asks.
Her gaze hardens on him. “You will live?—”
He exhales, shaky.
“—on earth, as a mortal,” Ceri continues. “No wings. No immortality. No power beyond what a human man may claim. You will age. You will suffer. And you will die.”
Silence stretches.
“Rowan…” I start, tone low. “I couldn’t ask you to give all that up…for me.”
But Rowan only pulls his shoulders back and nods. “As long as I can live the rest of my existence with her, I accept.”
Ceri turns to me, her massive wings folding in. Her expression softens, just a fraction. “Very well. And so it shall be.”
When she lifts her hand again, Rowan’s feather lifts from my belt, hovering in the air before drifting into her palm as if drawn by invisible currents. I watch, stupefied, unable to move.
As Ceri’s fingers close around the frayed, fragile feather, the air around us pulsates, and light gathers again, not violent this time, but vast. With a single, deliberate squeeze, the feather’s spine snaps, along with the white void around us.
The forest clears around us, the familiar sounds of buzzing insects and wind filling the air. I gasp, blinking rapidly as my eyes adjust to the darkness from the blinding white. And when I can focus, I find Rowan immediately.
He’s standing across the clearing. No wings, no glow, just a man. One that owns my entire heart. The bond between us is quiet now, muted, but I can feel it lingering beneath the surface, a chain that will never break.
I run to him without thinking, and he steps forward, arms opening instinctively. I throw myself against him, burying my face in his chest, and he wraps me in his strong embrace. All the terror, the pain, and the chaos of what we just survived melts away in the warmth and honeyed scent of him.
“It’s over,” he whispers. There’s a thread of relief in his tone I don’t miss. “It’s over, Lyra.”
I lift my head and look up at him. “But you lost your wings. You’ve been trying to restore them for so long, and now…”
“I don’t need my wings anymore.” His hands trace my face, cupping my chin. “Now we can have a real life now. Together.”
And I believe him.
He leans down, brushing his lips against mine in a feather-soft kiss. It tastes like hope, like fire finally tamed. I press closer, standing on my toes to wrap my arms around his neck.
“Lyra, my love,” Rowan mutters. “Our life is waiting. Ours, Lyra. All of it.”
“You don’t mind mortality?” I ask. “Of one day it all ending? Of dying?”
He laughs. “If it’s five minutes or five hundred years, I’ll cherish every second I’ve been given with you.”
I smile, my heart swelling with so much love, it may just burst. “And then in the next lifetime.”