Chapter 63 – My Eliza

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That day I wore no horns or flame, no darkened crown, no demon name. Yet in her arms, beneath her gaze. My dying heart began to blaze.

Now kingdoms tremble when I rise. And gods look down with fearful eyes. But all the strength the world would fear was born when she first held me near.

I still recall those fields of white. Where crimson vines embraced the light. The heavens claim my soul had strayed. But in her love, I was remade.

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“My heart. My soul. Every part of me I spent my life hiding.” Her fingers tightened gently around mine. “They’re yours, Lilith. Not because you took them.”

Eliza held my gaze.

“Because I’m giving them to you.”

For once, I had no answer.

I could only stare at her.

At the tears still shining upon her cheeks, at the beautiful smile she made no effort to hide from me, and at the woman resting in my arms as she freely offered me everything I had ever wanted.

The bond carried no fear from her. No regret. There was no hidden part of Eliza shrinking from her own words or wishing she could draw them back.

The walls around her heart had not disappeared.

She had opened them for me.

Through the bond came everything she had guarded for so long—her trust, her tenderness, and that small, fragile happiness she still seemed almost afraid to touch.

And beneath it all, warm and unmistakable, was her love.

I had wanted her love from the moment I first tasted the loneliness inside her. I had wanted to drag her close, smother every doubt, and make her understand that she would never need to be alone again. Yet now that she was offering it to me freely, I could do nothing but stare.

I had spent so long wanting to be loved that I had never considered what it might do to me when someone finally chose me in return.

“Eliza…”

Her name slipped from me softly.

I remembered holding her beneath my burning tree and asking what more I could possibly give her, what I could do to make her believe that I was not another lie wearing a loving face.

I had not known then that a true name lived somewhere inside me. I had not even known whether I possessed one. The cult had spent years reshaping my body through pain and blood, and for all the instincts I had later taken from Baloria, a true name had never been among them.

Then Eliza had asked for the truth, and the moment I reached for it, something deeper than thought had answered.

L’yil-Ith-Kha’shath.

The name had simply been there, waiting beneath every other name I had ever carried. I did not understand where it came from or why speaking it felt as though I had torn open my soul and placed it in her hands.

I only knew that it was mine.

So I gave it to her.

If it had not been enough, I would have waited. Time meant very little in this place. Years could have passed beneath these branches while barely a day moved beyond my domain, and I had been prepared to spend every one of them with her. I would have held her through everything, listened to every doubt, and endured every fearful or hateful look until she finally understood that I was not going anywhere.

But she had not asked me to wait.

She had chosen me now.

The thought moved through me again, and this time I could not breathe around it.

She had seen Sam. She had seen what I had endured and what I had allowed myself to become. She knew the darkness inside me was not something I wished to cure, and she had felt how completely I wanted her.

Still, she had smiled and placed her heart in my hands.

Mine, because she wanted it to be.

My fingers rose to her cheek almost without thought. I brushed away the tear resting there, and when Eliza leaned into my palm, the ache in my chest tightened until I could no longer tell whether I wanted to laugh or cry.

Or kiss her until neither of us remembered how to breathe.

The bond carried every part of it to her—the love swelling inside my chest, the hunger beneath it, the possessiveness, and the fear I could not quite crush. I believed her. I felt the truth of her choice as clearly as I felt her warmth against me.

Yet some wounded part of me still expected it to vanish.

“Eliza,” I whispered again.

Her fingers moved through the hair at the back of my neck, and the affection that answered through the bond left me trembling.

I leaned toward her slowly, not because I thought she would refuse me, but because I needed to watch her choose this too.

Her eyes closed before my lips reached hers.

I kissed her gently, my palm resting against her cheek as I tasted the warmth of her lips and tried to keep the hunger inside me from swallowing the tenderness of the moment.

Then her hand tightened behind my neck.

Her love rushed through the bond, open and bright and entirely mine to feel, and whatever restraint I had gathered shattered beneath it.

I pulled her closer and kissed her again.

The gentleness of that first kiss gave way to everything I had been holding back. My fingers slid into her hair while my other arm tightened around her waist, pressing her against me until I could feel the hurried beat of her heart against my chest.

Eliza did not retreat. She leaned into me, answering the hunger in my kiss with a need of her own, and the love flowing through the bond grew warmer with every movement of her lips. It poured into me faster than I could contain it, stripping away the last of my restraint until there was nothing left but the need to feel her closer.

The world shifted beneath us.

The scorched earth softened as Eliza fell back, and I followed her down, unwilling to let more than a breath separate our lips. Something cool and delicate brushed against my hands, but I barely noticed it while her fingers remained tangled behind my neck and her love continued pouring through the bond.

Only when I finally lifted my head did I see where the shifting world had carried us.

The burning tree and crimson sky were gone. Pale light stretched above a field of white roses that seemed to continue without end, their petals gathered beneath us in place of the ruined earth.

Crimson blooms broke through the white in scattered patches. Some stood alone, while others spread across the field like beautiful wounds beneath the pale sky.

I looked down at Eliza beneath me, her hair scattered across the flowers while her hands remained upon me—one resting against my shoulder, the other still curled behind my neck. Her lips were flushed from my kisses, and her breathing was almost as uneven as mine.

Only then did I understand where we were.

This place belonged to her.

The field had opened around us because she had allowed it to. There was no barrier left between her soul and mine. Nothing inside her remained closed to me. Eliza had drawn me into the deepest part of herself and allowed me to remain.

My breathing grew heavier as I stared down at her.

She had given me more than her trust. More than her memories or the overwhelming love now pouring through our bond.

She had given me a place within her.

“Eliza…”

Her name left my lips before I could stop it.

I lowered myself closer, my hair falling around us as I searched her face for the smallest trace of regret.

There was none.

“Eliza,” I whispered again, tasting her name as though repeating it might help me believe that she was truly here, still lying within my arms. “Eliza…”

A soft laugh escaped her, and the warmth of it travelled through the bond.

Her hand rose to my cheek.

I closed my eyes and pressed into her palm, but the fear inside me refused to quiet. It remained beneath the joy, clawing at the happiness I had only just begun to touch.

“Are you certain?” I asked.

When I opened my eyes, Eliza was still smiling.

“If I accept this…” My voice caught, and I drew in a breath that did nothing to steady me. “If I allow myself to believe that you have truly given yourself to me, I will never release you.”

Her thumb moved gently across my cheek.

“I will love you until there is no part of me left that does not.” My fingers curled into the earth beside her head, crushing several petals beneath them. “I will treasure every part of you, Eliza. Your kindness. Your anger. Every wound you carry and every piece of yourself you still believe is broken.”

The love in her eyes did not waver.

“And if anyone tries to take you from me, I will tear them apart.” My breath trembled against her lips as I moved closer. “I do not care whether it is a mortal, a god, or the world itself.”

My gaze searched hers.

“Even death will not keep you from me. I would follow you into whatever waits beyond it, and I would not return without you.”

I knew how those words sounded. I knew there was nothing gentle or reasonable in the promise I was making.

But I would not soften it for her.

Eliza had offered me everything she was. I would not accept it while hiding what my love would demand of me.

“So tell me again,” I whispered. “Tell me now, while I can still bear to hear you change your mind.”

The thought of it sent pain through me, sharp enough that the bond carried it to her before I could hide it.

“Are you certain you want to belong to someone who will love you like this?”

Eliza held my gaze in silence. I let her see the hunger I had never hidden from her, the need to keep her close burning beneath it, and the terror that this happiness could still be torn away.

Then her smile softened.

Her palm settled more firmly against my cheek, and she drew my face closer until our foreheads touched.

“Then don’t let me go,” she whispered.

The words struck through me.

“I know what you are, Lilith.” Her eyes never left mine. “I know what your love means.”

Her fingers slipped into my hair.

“And I’m still choosing you.”

My breath broke between us.

Eliza lifted her head until her lips brushed mine, though she did not kiss me yet.

“I’m yours because I chose to be,” she whispered. “So make me yours.”

A crimson vine rose through the roses beside her, curling around the stem of a white bloom and drawing them together without crushing either one.

More followed at the edges of my vision. Red vines spread through the field as the white stems bent to meet them, weaving together until the scattered patches no longer stood apart.

Neither colour consumed the other.

They simply grew together.

But I could not look away from Eliza long enough to follow their spread.

She was still smiling beneath me.

Still choosing me.

Her answer buried the last of my fear beneath hunger, love, and a happiness so fierce I could no longer restrain it.

“Gladly, My Daughter.”

I lowered my lips to hers.