Years passed.
The dragons no longer hid.
Magic flowed freely but wisely.
Children laughed where screams once echoed.
And at Kael's side, I ruled not with fear, but fire tempered by mercy.
Sometimes, late at night, I thought of the girl who had knelt before a blade in another world.
She would never believe this ending.
Kael squeezed my hand. "Thinking too deeply again?"
I smiled. "Just grateful."
"For what?"
"For dying once," I said. "So I could live fully now."
He kissed my temple.
The bond between us pulsed not as magic, but as love.