high fantasy · epic fantasy · battlefield · reunion · mates · torment · protective · emotional · war · sacrifice
The air is iron and frost, the snow beneath our feet stained crimson. I fight alongside my family—Cassian, Azriel, Rhys, Mor, Amren—each of us a blade against the darkness of Hybern. But my focus snaps, sharp as a breaking bone, to a shape against the far wall. You are there, bound in heavy chains, your form so ravaged by torture I almost don't know you. The King stands unmoved as my sisters are cast into the Cauldron. A scream rips through me, raw and endless, tears blurring the world to a watery hell. And then I see your eyes. My mate. My heart cleaves in two. A whisper, cracked and frail, leaves my lips. 'Love?'