twilight of the thunder god

The winter is unlike anything Ember had ever experienced. Born into the season when it had just been wet, not winter was cold, snowy, and frosted with ice. She didn't dislike it—in fact, Ember quite enjoyed the snow—but all of it reminded her of him. Of the mountain where she'd met him, where she'd cured him, where she thought they'd fallen in love. And yet he had gone and disappeared on her again. Gone off to do who knows what in gods knew where. She'd stayed all the same to help Delphi with Hemlock, but when that became a futile effort and Erik never reappeared, Em simply returned home to try and not think about it. It was an impossible task, of course. Made even more impossible by the call that came from the north end of the plains one wintry afternoon.

Ember's ears flicked, her head snapping up from the wines she was helping to prepare down in the cellars. After sharing a look with her mother and being dismissed, Ember sprinted out of the castle and across the snow-covered plains in the direction of the call. There was no way. There was no fucking way! Oh, but there was... and there he stood at the border, his dark form silhouetted against the undisturbed snow on all sides. Drawing closer to him, Em could see him in his entirety now. He was an adult, fully grown and towering a half foot over her. He was broad with thick muscles, very much filled out as a boy who had become a man. He also looked tired, mentally and physically fatigued, like he'd been off fighting a war.

Her pace slowed as Ember came closer, pausing a few paces away as she looked him over. She hadn't thought to grab her cloak on her way out the door, so she stood before him in her entirety too. She had grown up as well, no longer an adolescent but a woman. Slender, svelte, curvy in all the right places, standing on long legs with planes of taut muscle from days of running and swimming. Her oceanic eyes stared into his fiery gaze, looking at him like perhaps she was seeing a ghost. Gods, just seeing him again made her stomach clench. Or maybe that was just her heat season doing that to her.

After a moment of silence, Ember closed the gap, walking right up to her viking boy. Her viking man. Her breath hung in a humid cloud as she studied him, looking him over, then holding his gaze once more. Those eyes narrowed a touch, the only show of her frustration at seeing him again so cavalier at the border. "Everyone said you were dead. Apparently they were wrong," she mused aloud, her voice still melodic, now mature and refined, and oh so deadly with emotion. "You have some nerve leaving me behind on your mountain then showing up at my home, Erik. Where the hell did you go?!" Part of her wanted to reach over and claw his face off. Another part of her wanted to grab him by the face and kiss him hard. She'd wait to hear his response before she decided on which option she'd choose.

"Ember Carpathius" | "Carpathian"