---
The title stayed. The relationship did too. That history made the decision uncomfortable.
It did not make it forbidden.
Elena had also lived far longer than any mortal could properly understand. Gods could live for millions of years. After reaching that level, differences of decades or centuries stopped carrying the same meaning they held for ordinary people.
She had never had a romantic partner. She had never married. She had never needed either.
For most of her life, cultivation, duty, Dawn House, and the people she had chosen to protect had been enough.
This situation had nothing to do with romance.
Sekhmet was losing control. If killing continued feeding the Bloodlust and Sofia's second solution was real, then allowing embarrassment to stop her would be foolish.
What mattered was preventing Sekhmet from killing important people around him.
