CHAPTER 238: A GAMBLE

And in the heart of the cataclysm, surrounded by the proof of our mutual ruin, I felt it... a warmth that had nothing to do with dragons or divinity. It was a small, mortal, impossible bloom in the frozen tundra of my old heart.

Fool. My beautiful, catastrophic fool. Willing to watch his world turn to cinders for the sake of the monster who loved him.

We were a pair of utter madmen. And the madness, I realized with a clarity that felt like destiny, was the only thing that had ever made sense.

"Soren..." My voice wasn’t even a word anymore. It was a plea... thin, trembling, carved out of fear and exhaustion and something far more dangerous.

"Absolutely not."

His answer didn’t crack, didn’t waver, didn’t even breathe. It dropped between us like a verdict, heavy enough to change the air around us.

The tone he used, that tone was the same one he used to command armies, to end wars, to silence entire courts with a single breath.

His arms stayed locked around me, holding me so close I could feel his pulse hammering beneath the frost lacing his skin.

Cold heartbeat. Warm grip. Terrified emperor pretending at composure.

"Your seal is broken," he said, voice sharp as splintered ice. "Pyronox is fully awake. You could lose yourself. Completely. Not just the magic—you. I will not allow that."

A painful pressure built in my chest... frustration, fear, the dragon’s restless pacing inside me, all tangled into something that made it hard to breathe.

Not from fire.

Not from power.

From him.

"What other choice is there?" I demanded, heat slipping into my words. "They won’t stop. The contract binds them. They will burn everything... everyone... until nothing remains. Someone has to send them back."

"Not you."

His arms tightened until the embrace hurt... until it felt like he was trying to keep my soul from slipping through his fingers.

"I am not risking you. There has to be another way."

"There is no other way!"

"Then we find one."

We stood locked together in the ruin of an empire’s street... demons screaming, buildings collapsing, ash spiraling upward like prayers that would never be answered... and we argued like the world wasn’t ending around us.

He wasn’t scared of the demons.

He wasn’t scared of death.

He was terrified of me dying.

And I was terrified of what would happen if I didn’t act.

Time bled away... seconds, then minutes. Every delay meant another life lost. Another home destroyed. Another district swallowed in fire.

But we were stuck.

Both too stubborn.

Both too afraid of losing each other to let the other take the risk.

Then something clicked.

Not hope... something quieter and sharper. A compromise. A gamble. Something that required courage in a way battle never did.

"Make a deal with me."

Soren froze. Not physically... emotionally. Like every alarm inside him fired at once.

His eyes narrowed, seeing straight through me.

"What deal?"

"I cast the spell. I send them back. But you stay close. If Pyronox takes over, if I lose myself—"

I swallowed.

"—you stop me. Use your ice. Contain me. Don’t let me become a threat."

His expression broke... just a fraction, but enough. Enough for the truth to spill out along the cracks.

"The last time..." His voice lowered, roughened. Almost unrecognizable. "In the temple ruins... your body cracked, Eris. It was breaking under him. You were dying in my arms. I—"

He inhaled sharply, brows knitting as he recalled. "I couldn’t sense you. Only him. Something wearing your face."

My chest tightened.

"I cannot live through that again," he whispered. "I cannot watch you vanish. I cannot... lose you."

It wasn’t fear of the dragon. It wasn’t fear of magic. It was fear of losing the woman he had somehow let into his frozen heart.

I had to end this stalemate. Had to get through to him in a way logic never could.

And the idea that came to me made my heart leap into my throat.

It was reckless. Embarrassing. Terrifying in a way combat never was.

Soren began to speak again, voice fraying with desperation.

"Eris, I really do not think—"

I didn’t let him finish.

I framed his face with both hands... cold, hard jawline under my palms, skin chilled from power he hadn’t fully pulled back into himself and dragged him down to me.

My lips pressed to his.

A soft kiss at first. Testing. Terrified.

A confession spoken without language.

He went rigid... shocked, confused, breath stolen right out of him.

And then I kissed him again. Deeper. With intention. With everything words kept failing to say.

He broke... not loudly, not visibly.

But I felt it... the moment his restraint shattered. His hands pulled me closer, not possessive but desperate, like he’d been holding himself together with willpower alone and my touch had undone every last stitch.

The cold of his lips met the heat of mine... an impossible temperature war that should’ve hurt, but instead sent shivers racing down my spine.

He kissed me back like he’d been dying to.

Like he’d been starved of this.

Like he’d held himself back for so long that now, tasting me, he couldn’t stop.

His hand slid to the back of my neck, fingers threading through my hair.

His other arm crushed me against him, erasing even the idea of distance.

My own hands slid from his cheeks to his shoulders, needing something solid to hold onto as heat roared through me. Not Pyronox’s heat... mine. Want. Need. Fear. All tangled.

His tongue brushed my lower lip and my mind shattered, just broke outright, abandoning logic, abandoning fear, abandoning everything except him.

The world around us burned... demons cackling, fire raging, buildings burning, but none of it touched this moment. None of it mattered.

For these few stolen seconds, the only thing that existed was his mouth on mine, cold and fierce and impossibly tender all at once.

Pyronox stirred inside me... Almost approving, ancient amusement curling through my mind.

Ah. So this is what you choose to live for.

I ignored him.

I kissed the man who held me like I wasn’t a weapon or a vessel or a doomed queen, but someone he could love. Someone worth risking an empire for.