Page 198 of Celestial Combat

I just sat there beside him, the drawing trembling in my hands, as the fire lit the only warmth between us.

“When this is all over,” Zane said quietly.

I turned my head to look at him, the firelight catching on his lashes, his voice thick with something he was trying to swallow.

“Zane – ”

“I’m coming back to New York with you.”

My breath caught.

“You are?” The words barely made it past my lips.

His eyes met mine. There was no hesitation in them now – just the raw, weathered truth. “I love you, Kali. Forever. I go where you go.”

I didn’t wait another second.

I moved toward him, climbed into his arms like I belonged there – because I did. My arms wrapped around his neck, and the moment my chest met his, something in me cracked open again, but this time it wasn’t pain. It was relief. It was home.

He let out a shaky breath against my collarbone and buried his face in the curve of my neck, arms locking around me like steel. “Fuck,” he whispered, voice broken with longing. “I missed you.”

I closed my eyes and held him tighter. “You scared me earlier.”

His arms tightened like he could somehow protect me from the memory itself. “I’m sorry, baby. This is… A lot for me. I wasn’t thinking right. I’ve waited so long for answers and the moment I got close, I just – lost it.”

“Let me be there for you,” I said, fingers threading through the hair at the base of his neck.

He nodded against my skin. “Please. I’m sorry. You know I can’t breathe without you.”

“I love you,” I whispered.

His breath caught, and I felt the words vibrate through him before he said them again, low and sure, “I love you more.”

And for the first time in days, the silence around us didn’t feel heavy. It felt like peace.

His mouth took mine, falling into a raw, deep, emotional kiss that I wasn’t sure we’d shared before. Something was different.

He lowered my back to the floor, onto the warm fluffy rug in front of the fireplace and I sighed, feeling his weight settle on me with comfort. Slowly, we took each other’s clothes off, doing our best to not pull away unless necessary.

My legs parted for him without hesitation as he settled between them. And when he pushed inside me – slow, deep and raw – I was already gone.

I held onto him like he might disappear and in response, he held onto me tighter, letting me know he was taking me with him where ever he was headed.

It was a strange thing being in love. If Kali from eight months ago, before meeting Zane, found out she could feel this deeply for a man…

I almost laughed at the thought. But then peace settled in my chest, because I knew Zane wasn’t just ‘a man’ – he washim.

His breath came out in quiet, ragged groans against my neck, and I could feel every slow thrust like an affirmation. I ran my hands over the ridges of his back, feeling the tension in his muscles unwind a little more with every pass of my fingers. He kissed the side of my neck, soft and reverent, like he needed to make up for every second we’d been apart.

“Don’t let go,” I whispered.

“Never,” he murmured, his voice thick, breaking apart as he pressed deeper into me, slow and sure.

The fire crackled next to us, casting soft orange light over his face, his eyes nearly black with emotion.We moved together like we’d done this a hundred times – but never like this…

He kissed me again, slower now, his mouth brushing mine in rhythm with the lazy rock of his hips. I felt full in every way – not just physically, but emotionally, like he’d slipped into every fractured part of me and my soul and made it whole.

My hands framed his face as I kissed him back, and when I whispered his name, it came out as something holy.