“Why didn’t you come back sooner?” I ask.
Elder’s voice is cracking and raspy. “I tried. I didn’t know where I was. ” He looks around the forest. “I found a creek nearby, so I had water. And my leg. ” He looks down, and I see the crude splint he’s made for his leg. He couldn’t walk, and he didn’t know where to go.
“I just had to hope you’d find me,” he says.
Then he can’t talk any more, because I’m kissing him, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. But I do. I lean back and stare into his eyes, and it’s not until I see the light within them that I realize the truth of it. He’s back.
He’s skinny, far skinnier than I’ve ever seen him. I think his arm is broken by the way he holds it against his body, and his leg definitely is. He’s bedraggled and wounded and dirty, but he’s here.
He blinks. Touches the side of my face, near my eyes. My eyes that are blue now, not green. With oval irises.
“I’m still me,” I say, because my greatest fear now is that he doesn’t want a hybrid Amy.
He cocks an eyebrow. “You think I care if your eyes are blue or green? I just care about you. ” His hand slips down my arm, and he wraps his pinky finger around mine.
“You came back to me,” I say, my voice breaking over unshed tears of joy.
“I’ll always come back to you,” he tells me, pulling me close.
Always.