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“Yes,” Ronan said, and I turned my head briefly to see the Prophet put arms around his own Helpmeet. “The breeding heats are usually dangerous. But that is going to change.Thisseason is going to be different. I’m starving, Bee. Any of that stew left?”

She laughed, throaty and rich, as she pulled him with her into their house.

I laughed too, surprising even myself with how light my heart felt and how my shoulders relaxed into Rhyder’s.

“Are you all right?” I asked. “This is a new Congregation, with new ways of doing things.”

“Sister, any Congregation mistreating you deserves to be burned with fire and sent into the pit of darkness,” he said. “I’m only sorry I didn’t see it sooner.”

“You saw it when you needed to,” I said, glancing down at the snake bite.

It would heal.

Rhyder put his arms around me, cradling me against his big chest, my body dwarfed in his massive arms. The End of the World Serpent on my arm shone, dark but jewel-bright.

And like the Serpent, I made my choice. I would remake the world, not break it.

“I love you,” I said, and I heard the rumble of his answer, the thread that knitted together my life, the pulsing undercurrent to every breath I took.

I love you, he sung back to me

All the time

I love you