Aster’s voice was thin. “I think you already know the answer to that.”
My ribs clamped around my heart because this pain had little to do with her fall. Still, I searched her, eyes racing as I hunted for any injury. Her coat was wet, and her dress was ripped on the left side. I lifted the tattered fabric a fraction. Aster flinched, and I cringed when I saw the trickle of blood above her knee.
Pushing to standing, I stretched out my hand. “Come here.”
Aster wavered, her attention dipping toward the ground, her profile so goddamn gorgeous I had to stop myself from leaning down so I could run my lips along the length of her defined jaw.
“Please, let me help you.”
Agate eyes met mine. A burn of hope and a glimmer of dejection.
She set her hand in mine.
Energy lapped, a warm buzz that eclipsed reason and sight.
I pulled her to standing. She winced again.
“I’m sorry that I upset you.”
“It’s not even that.” Her head barely shook.
It was everything.
Everything that felt insurmountable.
Old wounds and a new trauma that somehow felt unavoidable.
And still, something I would hold.
I took her chin between my fingers and tipped up her face.
So she would see.
So she would understand.
“I regret every instance I have ever hurt you.”
At my confession, her expression deepened.
I let my fingertips flutter down the length of her neck as I rounded her, and I grasped her coat so I could slip it down her trembling arms. I tossed it to my bed before I reached out and gathered the bulk of her hair and tucked it over her shoulder.
I inhaled.
Hyacinth and magnolia leaves.
A new beginning.
A fresh start.
Aster shivered.
Everything slowed, and I swore I was tripping into a dream.
When my fingers found the top of the zipper, Aster’s spirit stormed the room.
“Why does it have to hurt so bad?” It was a breath of agony.
I angled down so my mouth was at her ear. “It hurts because we didn’t end up where we were supposed to. Because there has been a piece missing in each of us. An ache that can never be filled.”