Rebecca

For a while, neither of us spoke. The hollow seemed to breathe with us, a slow pulse of warmth ebbing and fading as the fire inside him settled. His weight pressed into me, solid and real, and I kept my hand on the back of his neck until his trembling eased.

When he finally looked up, his eyes had shifted back to gold. Soft again. Mortal again. The fire in them had dimmed enough that I could see the man beneath the ruin.

“I love you, Rebecca,” he ...