The lover's reckoning

It was nearly dawn when Aure returned.

His feet touched mortal soil with a weight he hadn't felt in hours.

His breath still shallow.

His sigil still glowing.

And beneath his skin…

Xarion's kiss still lingered like a brand.

Lian stood waiting beneath the scarred birch tree where they used to train.

No sword.

Just silence.

And grief barely contained behind his jaw.

"I felt you," he said without turning.

"I felt him."

Aure swallowed hard . "It wasn't what you think."

"Then tell me what it was."

Silence.

Wind whispered between them, catching on the tension like strings about to snap.

Aure stepped forward, but Lian turned eyes dark, alive with the storm he tried to bury.

"Did he touch you?"

Aure flinched.

"Did he take you by force?"

"I gave him what he wanted," Aure said softly. "That's different right?"

Lian closed the space between them in a blink, pushing him against the tree, hand braced beside their heads, his chest heaving.

"And what am I supposed to be now? A memory? A lesser touch?"

His voice cracked on the last word.

Aure looked up at the man who once kneeled in a dream and vowed to find him again.

At the man who had died for him in another life.

At the man who still shook in love and fury.

"I needed to remember who I was before us," Aure said.

"And to choose what I want after."

"Then choose, Here,Now."Lian growled

"Let me remind you who we are."

---

( The Test of Flame)

Lian didn't wait for permission.

He kissed him hard, hand in his hair, the other at his back.

Not possessive but pleading. Not lustful but raw.

He dropped to his knees like he had in that dream but this time, it wasn't surrender.

It was a challenge.

"Touch me," he whispered. "And tell me he made you feel more than this."

Aure's hands shook.

Because in that moment…

Lian's fire hurt more than Xarion's divinity ever could.

Because this was real.