Dawning

He watched her as she slept, her exposed body illuminated by the glow from the fire as it burned. He listened for the crackling in the fire, for the wind as it fanned the burning embers, for the cacophony of the night life all around them, and for her heart beating steadily and calmly.

He should be feeling fulfilled right about now, she had told him exactly what he had been wanting to hear since he had her taken from Dragonsbane, what he needed to hear for the sacrifice to be on the way and he knew that she had meant it as well.

“I love you…” She had whispered softly into his ears. It had caught him completely and totally off guard, and in that moment, everything he had been prepped for as ruler of Astaroth had come crashing down on him. The responsibility and weight and burden of the sacrificial year of Osyron dropped on him like a bomb shell, shattering his will into many unrecognizable pieces.

He was the Lord and Ruler of Astaroth, an Axeris who had the ultimate duty of seeing to i