CHAPTER 32

SLADE

She's a vision.

Auren gleams in the sunlight, dressed head to toe in armor that melds against her body. She's so fucking beautiful, so fucking strong.

And here. After all this time, after walking from one world to the next, she's finally here, right in front of me.

The sight of her takes my breath away.

I edge around a fountain, see her eyes widen at the looming dragon behind me, her steps slowing.

"It's okay," I reassure her, my eyes delving into hers, my throat closing from joy and emotion. "I—"

Liquid gold suddenly slams into my chest.

It's so unexpected that it staggers me. I manage to stay on my feet, but just barely. She stops, leaving distance between us, just as that gold partially solidifies to slide down my torso and wrap around me like ropes. It binds my arms behind my back and hardens around my boots.

I look down at the gold holding me in place and then back at her with a smirk. "If you wanted to tie me up, then may I suggest we do so in private?"

It doesn't escape me that her gold is riddled with roots of rot— my rot.

Pure male satisfaction surges through me.

Her expression is unreadable. "You're not The Breaker. Who are you?"

I blink, thoughts cutting off as I replay her words. "What?"

"You heard me," she says, jutting her chin up, legs braced, a gleaming sword held in her palm. It's the most fearless, sexiest sight I've ever seen in my life. But in all my anticipation, in view of her gleaming perfection, I failed to see that there's something missing. Right there in her eyes.

My stomach plummets.

"Auren?"

I try to move forward even though I'm cemented in place, but she flinches back.

Flinches. Back.

"How do you know my name?"

She might as well have shoved her sword through my heart. I can't breathe as her words soak in, as I realize the unfamiliarity in her wary gaze.

What the fuck is happening?

Panic pulses through my head, and I feel real, cold fear that ices over my heart.

"What is this? What happened?" I demand. "Auren. It's me ."

But there's nothing. She looks at me like she's never seen me before, and my heart fucking shatters. I can hear every fragment fall.

Her eyes dart to look at the beast behind me, and I see her notice the tendrils of rot that have bloomed over the bricks from our feet.

My mouth is parted in shock, heartbreak pinching my chest as I desperately try to figure out what's going on. Then a male carrying a sword comes running up from the sloped area below. He has long black hair tossed over to the left side, and he's splattered with both bruises on his face and blood on his shirt.

He sees the dragon and comes to a jolting halt, his face paling. "What…"

"Yeah, I didn't expect to find a dragon," Auren mutters to him.

"No?" I say. "Well, I did expect to find a goldfinch."

Her golden eyes flare.

Something there, something almost there.

Hope surges in my chest.

Obviously, something happened to her memories, but she's still there. She's still mine. The proof of that is right there in her aura.

"What did you say?" she whispers, and her voice sounds so fucking fragile beneath all that armor that it hurts to breathe.

"Goldfinch," I say softly.

Her gold bindings loosen around me ever so slightly, and it makes my shattered heart lift. Try to piece back together.

Determination steels my bones.

I don't know why the fuck she doesn't remember me, or what's happened while we've been separated. But physical distance couldn't keep us apart, and a mental one won't either.

"Who are you?" she asks again, but her voice seems unsure now. Wavering.

The male looks between us, but wisely stays quiet and still.

"You know who I am, Auren," I tell her gently.

She starts to shake her head, and her gaze flicks up to the dragon again. "Eyes on me," I murmur.

Her gaze pins and sharpens. I can see the flare of defiance, but behind that is her uncertain vulnerability.

"You can see it, can't you?" I ask her. "You can see my aura?"

Her breath hitches. I want to wrap that breath around me and pull it into my chest. Feed her air right into my lungs. I need her with a ferocity that extends beyond anything else.

We aren't going to finally find each other only for her to be stolen away from me. I won't let that happen.

She won't let that happen either.

I watch her eyes scrape against my outline, no doubt eyeing the aura that must be flaring around my body the way hers does for me. Our energies always called to one another, even before our p?yur bond solidified. Even before we ever met.

Behind me, the dragon dissipates. I don't have to see it, I feel it disintegrating into the air like smoke on the empty street.

"Come here."

Her lips part and her chest starts rising and falling rapidly, as if she's not sure if she should attack again or run in the other direction. She's not afraid of me though. Wary and confused, yes. But there's a part of her that knows I'd never hurt her. Even if she doesn't remember, she knows that.

So I wait. I have faith. Because the only thing I believe in, is her.

She takes a step. One small step. Then she stops, like she's surprised she did it.

"Auren…" the other male says, but she ignores him, which is a really good thing for him.

"Are you going to tell me who you are?" she says.

"You're not asking the right question," I reply.

I watch as she takes another step forward, almost subconsciously, like she can't help but be drawn toward me. If it weren't for the gold holding me in place, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself either.

They say old spirits are drawn to the dawn. That they can't help but haunt the light. That's what I feel like. Without her, I'm caught in endless darkness.

Her throat bobs, and then her voice comes out softly. Tentatively. "Who are you…to me?"

A smile of pure pride tips my lips, and I swallow down a lump of emotion. "Very good. Now come to me, baby, and I'll show you."

There must be a force in the realms unknown, a goddess-sent gift that pulls us toward one another. Because even though she seems lost in the dark too, she comes.

She comes toward me willingly.

Our auras reach for each other, dark and light tendrils stretching…

When she's right in front of me, I call to the rot within her magic, making it tug the gold away from my arms. Her eyes widen as she sees the golden ropes fall away. "How—"

Then our auras meet. Join. Collide .

Our bond shatters the air.

Shadow and light blinds, shoving away everything else, until all that exists is her. We stare at each other, caught in this cocoon of our own atmosphere while the world trembles with our bond and everything else disappears.

Together. We're finally fucking together .

She sucks in a breath, like she's been holding it for too long. Like she's been lacking air since we were ripped apart.

Then, her face changes in an instant, and gone is the shock, the wariness, the uncertainty. In its place is something utterly life-changing.

Her beautiful eyes fill, and her gilded lips part.

" Slade ."

Our auras might've shattered the sky, but her saying my name shatters me .

And it seems to shatter her too. I can see every line that cracks through her eyes, every thought that breaks across her face.

"I remember…" she whispers upon a trembled breath. "Great Divine…I remember ."

Her expression looks haunted yet awed, a thousand words caught there, and I want to release every single one.

My eyes burn, my chest feeling ready to explode, but I reach forward and clasp her beautiful face. Drag my thumb over her soft cheek to catch the first tear that falls.

"You found me," she whispers, lip trembling.

The relief and heartbreaking joy is so intense I have to shove it aside before I can answer. "I'll always find you, Goldfinch."

Always .

A devastating smile breaks out across her face, watery eyes spilling over and flooding right into me. Then she leaps into my arms and I catch her.

I hold her so tightly against me in a way that threatens the Fates if they ever fucking dare to separate us again.

"Slade…Slade…Slade…"

She says it over and over again. Just my name. Repeated a thousand different times, in a thousand different ways.

I press my face into her hair, breathing her in, squeezing my wet eyes against the golden strands. Her legs are wrapped around my waist, arms holding me tight, and I clasp her to me so there's no space between us. Never again.

"Slade…"

"I'm here, Auren."

I'm finally here. Right where I belong.

With her.