Chapter 143: Breaking Chains, Breathing Magic
Easter~
The car hummed steadily beneath us as we drove away, but my mind was far from calm. I kept glancing at Jacob—this impossibly powerful, devastatingly handsome man who had just rewritten the course of my life with nothing but his voice and his magic.
Beside me, Jacob stared ahead at the road, his profile backlit by the dying sun. The golden shimmer from earlier still danced faintly at his fingertips, curling lazily before fading into the air like embers. My hand still tingled from where he had held it. I curled my fingers inward, as if to hold on to the warmth a little longer.
"Thank you," I whispered. My voice barely carried over the engine, but I knew he heard. "Thank you for freeing me."
His head tilted slightly, his lips twitching into a smile that could bring angels to their knees. "You freed yourself, Easter," he said gently. "I just made sure the chains didn’t try to crawl back."
I swallowed hard. My heart was full—achingly, blissfully full. "I’ll never forget the day Natalie walked into my life," I said. "She didn’t just offer help. She brought you into it."
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he reached across the console and wrapped his fingers around mine again. His touch was warm, grounding, like the sun itself had decided to hold my hand.
"You’ll never suffer again," Jacob said, his voice a quiet vow. "Not while I’m here. And I’ll be here... always. That’s the benefit of falling for a god, you know."
I blinked. "Falling for—?" My breath caught in my throat, and a dizzying warmth bloomed in my chest. But he didn’t seem to notice the effect his words had. He just smiled ahead, casual and calm, like he hadn’t just set off a firestorm in me.
Did he already know how I felt about him? Or was he just casually throwing around the word falling, totally unaware of what it was doing to me? God—what did that even mean?!
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, but this time, they weren’t from pain. They were from... relief. Joy. Safety. Giddiness.