Her back stiffens. “How can you ask me that?”
“Easy. I’ll do it again. What do you want, Olivia?” My voice is sharp, more demanding than I intend.
Liv springs to her feet. “I want to make my own choices! I want my life to be mine again! I want my brother to care about what I want. I want out of this situation!”
I’m up in an instant, pulling her against me. “I’m sorry, Liv. I’m sorry. ” I kiss her forehead, her cheek, and her nose, and then her forehead again. There’s pressure in my lungs. She didn’t answer my question the way I wanted her to, but I’m powerless against her pain. “It’s all right. Everything’s going to be all right. ”
I run my hands over her back, smoothing away the tension. Slowly she relaxes. Slowly she turns her head and rests it on my shoulder. Then I feel her fingers loop into my belt at my lower back, where she likes to hang her hands when I hold her, and I know we’re fine. I know we’re good again. The waves crash and we stand there. Her weight easing against me. Mine easing against her.
It’s a long while before she speaks.
“I’m scared, Roar,” she says. “I hate being scared. ”
“Hey. ” I tip her chin up so I can look into her eyes. “It’s going to be all right. ”
“How could I ever leave you?” she says.
I swallow and shake my head. I can’t hear those words. “You won’t have to. We’ll figure it out, I promise. I won’t let anything happen to us. ”
As I speak, Liv slides her hands under the hem of my shirt, pressing her fingers into my back. Her lips brush my jaw, gentle but insistent, and it’s impossible for me to talk anymore. I pull her against me, not so gentle. More insistent.
We end up on the sand trying to forget the past hours with kisses and whispered words. It doesn’t work. People say only Scires can render, but it’s not true. I feel her sadness and her fear. Whatever Liv feels, I feel.
I hold her and watch her drift asleep in my arms. I watch her for a long time afterward.
Then I force my eyes closed, and still her face is there.
This girl. She’s all I see.
5
The sound of giggling pulls me from a dream—nightmare?—of Liv in the middle of the clearing, wearing a long white dress.
“They’re waking up, Uncle Perry. ”
I peer up and see Perry standing above me. “About time,” he says.
Liv is pressed to my side, her head resting in the hollow of my shoulder. My arm is around her, but it’s completely numb. I doubt we moved an inch the entire night.
Talon has a metal pail and a shovel and he’s busy burying Liv’s legs in the sand. Judging by the weight I feel over mine, he’s already gotten to me.
Liv stirs. She peels away from me and sits up. “What happened to me? My legs are gone!” she shrieks. She wiggles her toes and acts surprised when they pop out of the sand. “Who did this?”
Talon and Perry point at each other at the same time.
“How dare you!” Liv says, glaring at Talon. She jumps up and dashes after him, yelling over her shoulder, “I’ve got the little one!”
I lay my head back and stare up at the Aether, listening to Talon’s happy shrieks. Since he got sick, everyone makes an extra effort to get laughs out of him.
“You’re not going to chase me?” Perry says.
I shake my head. “No. No, I’m not. ” The cut on my thumb stings and my neck is stiff. I’m not sure if it’s from two nights of sleeping on the beach or the punch I took from Vale. Probably both. “How do I look?”
“The part of you that I can see? Like death. ”
“That sounds about right. ” I sit up, stretching my arms to get my blood moving again.
“I talked to my brother,” Perry says.