When he’d lowered the shield he’d used against all the world.
Except me.
After we’d finished dinner and opened our fortunes—since Mom wasn’t letting us out of there without looking at our fortunes—we headed through the short hall to the foyer. As I hugged Mom, truly appreciating the hug with my all, I said, “I love you.”
She pulled away, her eyes wide with surprise, almost the way Sam’s had gotten earlier that evening. “Is everything okay?”
“What? Yes, I just wanted to let you know.”
“That’s the third time you’ve let me know tonight.”
I felt kind of silly. She was probably right. Especially after being triggered by Sam earlier, having all those feelings lingering within me, I just needed to get the words out.
In a way, Himeros had offered me a gift.
There was my life before meeting Liam, when I took things for granted. And my life after meeting him, when I understood just how precious everything in my life was. How it really could have all been lost in an instant. I had been ready for death, and in a way, reborn.
“I love you too,” Mom told me, which made me smile as we hugged once again.
I wanted to pull her even closer. I wanted to tell her just how much I loved her, and that I was finally beginning to understand the note she’d written me when I was a kid. It was something I’d thought about on and off since I’d made my own decision. Maybe she hadn’t really wanted to abandon me, but feared for me the way I had for Liam. Maybe she’d been haunted by her own inner Himeros all those years earlier.
But I didn’t share that with her. I was nowhere near ready. It was a dark, nebulous thought left for my own mind to grapple with, an existential problem I was sorting through, like so many others.
As soon as we were back at my car, I hopped in the driver’s seat and Liam slid into the passenger side. I turned to him, taking him in as he fastened his seat belt. His hair was just slightly longer than when we’d first met. His facial hair too.
“What are you looking at? I don’t have any more grays, do I?” he asked, sounding like he was cursing his body as he said it.
I laughed. “Not that I noticed. Was just thinking how much I love your natural color. Better than that hair dye.”
“Well, I’m glad yours is back to its perfect hue too.” He took my hand and squeezed gently. “You okay, Pretty Thing?” he asked softly.
“As long as I’m with you, everything’s fine.”
His expression remained tense. “Ty, that’s not how life works.”
“Sam just spooked me a little. And you know how I get.”
“Yeah, I do.”
He’d seen me react that way many times before, since he’d been there on the nights when I’d awoken from night terrors. Some I couldn’t remember, some I remembered too vividly. The fact that Himeros was still alive—and I was constantly fearing he might one day escape the prison the IPB’d sent him to—didn’t make me feel that much more at ease.
“I can see you feel responsible for when I get like this, but every moment, every trauma, was a small price to pay to be with you.”
“Don’t talk like that.” He sounded disturbed, but him not wanting to hear it didn’t make it any less true.
“Liam, I would suffer a thousand nights like that one if it meant I could trade it for a few minutes with you.” I hoped he could hear the unwavering certainty in my tone. “I don’t regret anything that happened, and I don’t want you to either. Just love me, and let me love you. Take care of me, and I’ll take care of you.”
He finally smiled. “Sounds like I get the easy deal, considering that was already my plan.”
“Then take advantage of it like I need you to take advantage of me tonight.”
I moved in for a kiss, and he didn’t fight me as I practically lunged over the console, wrapping my arms around him as we kissed with that familiar vigor.
In those moments, there wasn’t any pain or hurt or fear.
There was no IPB or Himeros.
The world around us faded as we transcended it, got lost on some other plane of existence where we were wrapped in our complete adoration for one another.
