I can’t breathe. “You think you love me?”
His words are not a want, but a need. I grab for them, hold them close. When he tugs on my hand, pulling me closer, I shift, unable to resist being closer to his warmth.
His arms wrap around me. I bury my face in his neck, in that crook that I’m rapidly learning is my favorite place. As if nothing bad can happen when he holds me like this.
After so many years of feeling unsafe, I am safe with him.
My hand curls into his chest as his low words echo between us, and I drink every single one of them in as though they’re nectar. As if I need them to survive.
“I fell in love when I saw you ready yourself to fight on the day of the Shift. With no weapons, no armor, flowers in your hair. You made me so unsteady that I followed you, and when I thought I had failed, I spent ten years mourning the loss of who you might have been.”
Beneath my cheek, tears trail down his skin, his neck.
“And then I found you again.” His hand cups the back of my head, comforting even as his words break and tremble. “As if fate had placed you back in my path for a reason. I have never given much concern for fate, Selene, but you make me believe in something bigger than us. Because I found you again, and every dream I thought I had shattered beneath the reality of you.”
His words hurt, almost as much as they light up every scarred, broken part inside me. My sob is swallowed by his skin. “Gods, Callan.”
“I am not done,” he says roughly. “I do not know what fate holds for us. But I know that when our time comes, whenever that may be, that my soul will seek yours out, and I will spend eternity by your side. Any other outcome is unacceptable to me. I refuse to be separated from you. Never again. But if you do not feel the same, I will respect your decision.”
He buries his face in my own neck. “But I think you do. I think you love me, Selene Amaris, but I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to realize it, too.”
When he shifts, pushing to his feet with me still in his arms, my legs tighten around him. “What are you doing?”
“It’s getting late.” His voice is rough with emotion. “We’ll stay here tonight, but you need to rest. You don’t have to say anything.”
He pulls back the covers of his bed, settling me down in the soft sheets. “I’ll stay by the fire.”
Silently, I shift back, making space. “Stay here. With me.”
I know that if he stays over there, with distance between us, I will not sleep. Callan’s eyes flicker, his fist clenching at his side. And then he toes off his boots.
The bed dips as he climbs in beside me. My wings brush against the wall as we face each other.
His expression is raw. As if he has given me everything, and there is nothing left to hide. I shift closer, just a little. Until we’re sharing the same pillow, until his warmth soaks into me.
Callan’s lips press to my forehead. “Sleep. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Chapter thirty-eight
Callan
Ido not sleep. Not for a single moment.
As the dawn light begins to creep through the windows, I glance down at her again. Selene sleeps with her cheek against my chest, over my heart, her arm sprawled over me and her hand gripping my shirt, even in sleep.
Her lower lip is a little swollen, her cheek reddened by the way I brushed my face against hers, over and over again, indulging in the feel of her, so perfect beneath me and against me that I wonder how I existed a single day without it.
It was not enough. If I needed more confirmation that she feels the same, even if she doesn’t understand it, I have it.
The shadows wrap around my wrist, as solid as silken rope. They squeeze lightly as I raise my hand. They lead directly to Selene’s palm, the faint glow of her skin still visible.
She bound herself to me in her sleep.
Sounds of the town waking around us filter through the walls by the time she stirs. I drink her in, learning the sounds shemakes as she shifts, an annoyed sound coming from her throat as she buries her face in my shirt.
“Good morning,” I murmur. Her head lifts, and I’m met with rumpled masses of moonlight hair. Wide eyes, filled with stars, the sight of them bringing a smile to my lips. “How did you sleep?”
She almost frowns. “I slept well.”
