Chains Broken, Hearts Laid Bare
"Leon…"
Her voice shook, delicate but striking, a strand of breath that pulled direct on his chest. Cassidy raised her face finally, black eyes shining with a tempest of feeling. Boldness struggled with vulnerability in her eyes, the two battling like flame and water and somehow being a part of the same soul.
Her mouth opened, tentatively at first, then the words tumbled out, weighted with memory.
"Last night… I think I would have shattered. I've never—" she swallowed, trembling lashes "—never felt anything like that. When your being overflowed me, it was like flame… no, not flame. Like light itself. The poison in my blood—each drop, each curse that devoured me—it was gone. I felt it flee.". And then… Her voice faltered, cracked and wheezing, her chest heaving beneath the sheet of threads entwined around her. "I broke through. Second Realm of cultivation. Novice Realm… all because of you."
Her admission hung in the air, bare, unguarded.
