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And, like the other two options, I will be waiting with open arms at the end of it.
It’s almost as if, regardless of what you decide, I will love you and be overjoyed.
What I’m trying to say is that I’d like you to do whatever you genuinely believe would be best for yourself right now, knowing I support whichever decision you make. Knowing I’m safe and well, and vow to you and the Sisters not to do anything rash, stubborn, or reckless while we’re apart.
Everything else will come in due time.
I swore I would never leave you, and I haven’t, even if it feels that way. I’m right through a portal, in the woods to the east of the cottage. Follow the path from the front porch and take the right side when you reach the fork. Araxis will leave you with tolls and already knows what I plan to do to him if he fails in any way.
I would also like to make a request for my own peace of mind. Please? I ask that you and Araxis agree on a signal of some kind, so that he might check on you without disturbing your privacy.
Again, only if you opt to stay there of your own free will. If you do…
Please try, Brand. Really try.
Before you spiral and think you’re stuck—you already know how to bring yourself back. You were exercising your change for decades before I was yours, and you don’t need me there beside you to do it. Just breathe.
You are Brandir aht Bordoroth. You are strong. You are Demon.
Open the bond when you’re ready and nothing will be able to keep me away from you.
I love you,
Luna
PS: You’ll know it’s been too long when you start talking to yourself. As Endellion likes to say—trust me, I would know.
It took him half a dozen tries to make sense of it all, and even then the most glaring thing was how different Luna was from the petrified beauty he caught tumbling from the portal behind Thad. Who whispered and kept her head down and ran from him—from everything—so many times he’d lost count.
The next thing he registered was that she knew him too well. As comprehension dawned, Brand’s immediate instinct was to crush the parchment and find a way to set it on fire. But the smallest part of him didn’t want to prove her right. Didn’t want to be that kind of person.
Stretching out all around you is a taste of what you’ve always wanted.
Didn’t Luna understand that she was all he wanted now? That he’d given up on a life lived in solace and peace. That his piddling desire to watch sunrises and sunsets as he carved absolutely paled in comparison to the dream she offered simply by being next to him, no matter where they were.
Damn the part of him that still yearned. The part who wanted to leap at the chance to curl up here in the midnight wilds and hide. Who read the words quiet and gift and try and was actually considering it.
It was the height of cowardice, surely. To do shite like sit around and breathe and…
What the fuck was he meant to do with himself?
Brand held the letter up, his hand trembling. “You’re aware of the contents of this missive?”
“I am,” Araxis answered, face a blank mask as he clearly did his damnedest to seem neutral.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“What…what do you think I should do?” Brand asked.
He didn’t want to make the decision himself. Free will was dragonshite when he was as lost as this. When he was barely able to form coherent thoughts past the rocking and mumbling of his lesser self. The gaping hole where his heart should be.
“I think your mate is wiser than I’ve given her credit for in the past. If nothing else, she has you entirely pegged.” One corner of Araxis’s mouth quirked up. “There’s value in that, Brand. To have someone you can trust so fully is no small thing. People like that keep us from being the worst versions of ourselves, and they know what’s best for us when we don’t know for ourselves.”
“Oh? How do you know that?”
The smile on his brother’s face died. “That’s the thing, isn’t it? I wouldn’t, for all my wanting it. Mum and dad are a good place to start, though.”
