I nodded, wiping at my eyes. “It chose us.”
He let out a shaky laugh, pulling me closer. “Then we’ll guard it. Always.”
The Ash Queen studied us for a long moment before bowing her head. “Then may the realm prosper under your watch. I was its queen once, but my time has ended. Now it belongs to you.”
The weight of her words sank in, heavy but right. Elias looked at me, his golden eyes steady. He didn’t need to say anything—I could feel it in the bond. We hadn’t just saved the realm. We were tied to it now, its guardians, its shield. Its heartbeat was ours, and ours was its.
But it didn’t feel like a cage. It felt like purpose, like every step we took mattered more than anything else in the world.
We walked down into the fields together, the grass soft beneath our feet. Villagers pause
