“No. I think having my emotion taken from me changed part of the way I think. I couldn’t care about anything enough—even myself—to dredge up arrogance. Once you gave me back some of my ability to feel, I think I wised up some.”
“But she still hates you.”
“And she’s determined to have her pound of flesh. My pride didn’t allow me to see what she was capable of. What she took from us. All emotion. Locking us in Otherworld.”
“No longer. You have it back.”
“Because of you.” He reached for her, drew her face up to his. “Thank you, Ana.”
He gave her the sweetest kiss of her life, all soft lips and grazing touch. Eventually, when she was breathless, he drew away and looked down at her.
He ran his thumb across her cheek and said, “I don’t think I have the full capacity for emotion that I once did, but everything good that I feel is wrapped up in you. I couldn’t kill you all those years ago when I found you in the forest because I recognized you. Not my eyes or my mind, but my heart.”
Something in her chest cracked open. She almost felt like she should speak words of love. They simmered within her, ready to boil free, but the gaping hole in her memory and their past kept her silent.
What she felt already was enough to give this situation an edge of fear. Their odds of getting out of this free and together were so slim that she couldn’t speak those words.
He grasped her wrists and raised them to his lips, pressed a kiss to one, and though she tried to jerk away, he pressed a kiss to the other as well.
“No,” she whispered. “They’re my failure.”
Her failure to extricate herself from the mess she’d made so many years ago, her failure to live the life she was meant to. At least, that’s how she’d always thought of them.
“And they’re m
y savior,” he said against her wrist. “You came to Otherworld for me. You wanted to escape, but you killed yourself and came back, thinking you’d be stuck there for good. How can I not love these scars for what they did for me?”
“Honestly, I didn’t even think about it. I just had to get to you. And you’re the one who saved me from godhood. Thanks for shooting me with my own arrow.” She smiled wryly.
“It was my place all along. Even if it wasn’t, I’d have done it for you. I could never let you suffer like that.”
She kissed him, delighting when he reached out and pulled her toward him.
“Will Esha come back soon?” he asked against her lips.
“No. She said something about a vacation with her sister. I think she’s gone.”
“Good.” He stood and swept her up into his arms.
“Wait, your injuries.”
“I’ve healed. Enough.”
She still had so many questions and so much worry about how they would keep the gods from hunting them, but they flew from her mind when Cam started for the bedroom.
Tomorrow. They would deal with them tomorrow.
He strode into the dimly lit room and set her on her feet near the bed. With a gentle hand, he lifted her chin so that she could meet his eyes.
“This means something, Ana. This is about what’s between us. No more lying to ourselves about what’s really happening. No matter what tomorrow brings, we’ll have this.”
Ana’s heart leapt and she nodded. Everything they’d had until now had been hard and fast and full of fear, running from what could be and lying to each other about what there really was. The mess of their past and the fear of their future had put them on either side of a chasm.
She didn’t want to run anymore, no matter how terrifying this was. Whatever came tomorrow, she’d have tonight.
He smiled and lifted her up, laid her upon the bed. He was so strong she felt weightless in his arms. She reached up to welcome him down to her, and he sank between her thighs with a groan.
His mouth found hers, lips seeking and tongue sinking deep. She moaned and opened for him, wanting to be as close as possible to this man who’d come to mean so much to her.