The first breath after godhood hurt.

It entered my lungs too sharply, raw and heavy. My body remembered what it was to breathe without fire, without immortality softening the air. Every inhale was real again.

Kael was beside me, crouched in the ashes of dawn. His chest rose and fell the same way hard, human, alive.

He coughed once, laughed softly, and looked at me through the golden light.

“Well,” he rasped, voice hoarse. “That’s one way to find out if we still need air.”

I smiled ...