After Sethis shared his findings, the others left the chamber quietly, giving Mae the space she needed. But Ashar and Riven remained. No words had passed between them since the scan. There was too much to say, and not enough clarity to form it. Mae sat up slowly, still pale but stronger now. The glow of her children, her energy-born twins, still buzzed faintly beneath her skin. She looked at Ashar, then Riven. Her mates. Her future.
"I don't know what I'm doing," she admitted, voice trembling but real. "I didn't even know I wanted this. Now they're here. And I feel like I'll break if I lose either of you."
"You won't," Riven said, sitting beside her and brushing a piece of hair from her cheek. "We won't let that happen." Ashar took a seat across from her, his arms resting on his knees. He looked at her the way only he could, quiet intensity hiding oceans of feeling. "They're alive because of you, Mae. They're here because you chose to feel instead of destroy."
"You both helped me choose," she said softly. There was silence then. Not heavy. Not uncomfortable. Just quiet enough to let the emotion breathe between them. Riven took her hand. Ashar reached across and covered them both. "We need time," Mae said. "Just us. Not the war. Not the council. Just us." Ashar nodded. "We'll take it."
They left the chamber behind and stepped into one of the far rooms in the castle's east wing, an ancient glass atrium, vines curling through broken windows now slowly restoring, thanks to Mae's power. The stars outside glittered impossibly bright, their light dancing across the mosaic floor. Riven collapsed back on a wide cushioned bench, pulling Mae gently between him and Ashar. She sighed, resting her head on Riven's shoulder and curling her legs across Ashar's lap. He didn't hesitate to wrap an arm around her thighs, grounding her there.
"This feels unreal," she whispered. "It is," Ashar said, voice low. "But you are real."
"And so are they," Riven added, pressing his forehead gently to hers. "I'm scared," she admitted. "We are too," Ashar said honestly. They sat there for a long time. No tension. No rivalry. No jealousy. Just connection. Just them. Eventually, Mae drifted off to sleep curled between them, her breathing steady, the faintest glow under her skin still present, warm, strong, and full of hope. Ashar looked at Riven, and Riven looked back. "She chose both of us," Riven said quietly.
Ashar nodded. "Then we protect her together." And in that soft, starlit moment, a pact was silently formed. Not just to protect Mae. But to stand beside her. To raise what came next. Together. They stayed there long after Mae had drifted off, curled between them like a thread weaving the two men together. Her small body, though exhausted, radiated warmth neither of them could explain. Her skin still glowed faintly beneath the thin fabric of her shirt, a soft, steady hum, like starlight made flesh. Ashar hadn't moved. Not once. His hand rested gently on her legs, thumb tracing a silent path as if afraid the light might vanish if he let go. Riven had adjusted just slightly to keep Mae's head against his shoulder, his other hand resting protectively over her stomach.
They both listened to her breathe. They listened to the quiet. "I didn't think I'd care this much," Riven said finally, keeping his voice low. "When we broke her out that night, I thought I was just playing a part."
"You weren't," Ashar replied simply. "I know that now." Riven turned his gaze toward Mae. "But I didn't expect this. To feel like this." Ashar nodded once. "Neither did I."
Silence again. But this time, it wasn't heavy, it was filled with shared understanding. An unspoken truce forming in the quiet. A recognition of something larger than both of them. Something divine. Something inevitable. "She's not like us," Riven said. "But she's not not like us, either." Ashar looked down at Mae's face. Peaceful. Soft. And still, even asleep, somehow powerful. "She is what was prophesied in a time before time," Ashar murmured. "Not created. Summoned. By accident or fate. She is the point where creation touches destruction and chooses to live instead."
Riven let out a slow breath. "No pressure or anything." That almost got a smile out of Ashar. "She doesn't even know how powerful she is," Riven added. "She will," Ashar said. "And when she does, we will be her anchors." Riven turned his head toward him, one eyebrow raised. "You mean we're staying?" Ashar didn't look away. "You love her."
There was no hesitation in Riven's answer. "I do."
"I do too," Ashar said softly, the words strange and foreign on his tongue, but true.
"And she loves us." Riven grinned slightly. "Both. Somehow." Ashar gave a brief nod, glancing again at the peaceful curve of her face. "Then we stand beside her. Together."
Riven leaned back slightly, careful not to wake her. "So, what happens when the babies come?" Ashar's eyes darkened with thought. "Then we become more than protectors."
"Family?" Riven asked. Ashar met his gaze again. "Something even more rare." They let that hang in the air as the stars outside twinkled against the glass dome overhead. A world once fractured beyond repair now shimmered with restoration, imperfect, but healing. Mae stirred slightly between them, shifting closer to Ashar's side without waking. Riven chuckled. "Jealous?" Ashar rolled his eyes. "She kicked me in her sleep an hour ago. I think we're even." That made Riven laugh for real, quiet, but genuine. It felt good to laugh again. It felt like something real in a world that had once been filled with broken things.
And then, just as the quiet began to settle again, Mae murmured in her sleep. Both men leaned in to listen. "stay" Ashar's expression softened. Riven's throat tightened.
She didn't say which of them the word was meant for. But maybe she didn't have to.
They both stayed. Long into the night, with the soft starlight painting warmth across her skin, Mae slept peacefully, her fingers curled into the fabric of both their shirts. They would face war soon.
They would face pain, loss, decisions no one should ever have to make. But tonight, in this small moment in the atrium of a world reborn, they were just three hearts. Bound. Growing. Learning to love in a universe that had tried to destroy them. And they would not let it try again.