She crossed the gates in a heartbeat, and then she saw him.
He stood there, framed by the morning light, in front of the car he had arrived in. Time slowed, the world falling away until there was only this moment. She froze, drinking him in—the way his skin seemed to shimmer faintly where the sunlight kissed it, even though his cloak and wide-brimmed hat shielded most of him. The proud, carved line of his jaw. The dangerous stillness of his stance.
He looked up, and their eyes met. The bond roared awake.
Damien could feel life seeping back into him just by the sight of her. His chest tightened painfully, his throat burning with all the words he had rehearsed in her absence, none of them strong enough to hold the truth of his relief. She's alive. She's here. She's mine. Everything he ever wanted—everything he had nearly damned himself to have—stood just a few feet away.
