“You’re still not asking the right question at the right time.”
“Argh! The deeper I dig, the more upside down I feel.”
“Life works in mysterious ways.”
“Anddeath,apparently.” Her snark is back, and I’m glad for it. “So genetic karma runs the world? I’m destined to repeat the horrible fates of my ancestors until I achieve the next level in the game? Like my own personal path to trauma over endless lifetimes?”
“Depends how stubborn you want to be about things, but sure. Most choose to embrace it as a path to healing, but you do you, Fable. You always have.”
She rolls her eyes at me, and I grin. Then I remember that just because she’s on the path doesn’t mean she’ll hit the destination in time.
There’s always been a stopwatch on us; she just doesn’t know it.
I shutter my eyes closed as the memory of her absence claws at my psyche. I can’t go without her again; I need her to understand where we are. Who we are now. Or else our time is up, our shared future evaporating like the clouds clinging to the crag.
“So, if I share a future with Olympia from the story…” Her voice lingers softly. “Who are you?”
My heart pounds as I wonder what my next move is. What can I reveal? What will send her into sanity, and what will pull her into madness? “Who do you think?”
Her gaze caresses my face, lingering on my lips and then down my throat to the exposed clavicles under my shirt. “I think you’re Alaric Macgregor.”
My eyes hold hers for long beats, unsure of the right thing to say. I’m paralyzed, heart caught in my throat and trying to process what it is she needs from me. I bite down on my bottom lip before I slowly nod, then caress the top curve of her lip with the pad of my thumb. “I’ve missed you so much.”
Tears rush to her eyes a moment before she wipes at them and forces a shy smile. “We’ve lost so much time.”
“We have so much time.”
“Do we, though? I can’t live at Leith forever—one foot in your world and one in mine. Until I die, and then we live happily ever after for eternity.” She’s backing away now, pressing herself out of my arms. I respect that she needs space, but I can’t let her get too far. She’s clearly not safe, and my connection to her is fading the deeper she loses herself in this. I need her to understand the nature of things tonight, because I’m afraid of what tomorrow might bring. I hardly think I could sleep knowing she’s out there wandering like a madwoman between the loch and Leith and the sea.
“Tell me about your…end.”I know she’s referring to death, but I can also sense she’s uncomfortable with the topic in every way.
“Which?” I try to cushion the blow with a joke. It doesn’t land, and her eyes are weighty with emotion. “Well, I guess let’s start at the beginning.” She’s backed herself out onto my porch now, moonlight and stardust spilling on her shiny hair. I think quickly, pulling my shirt over my head and revealing the ravaged scars that crisscross my body. “Do you remember how I got these?”
She shakes her head quickly before reaching out to trace a fingertip along one particularly angry-looking slash across my right pectoral.
“When Alaric…” I pause to correct myself. “WhenIcame home to Leith to find you—or Olympia—gone…I—” I search the stars above her head as if they hold the answers I need her to have. “I knew I’d fucked up by leaving you. I had no idea how much, but when Mother sent the sealed correspondence that you were missing, I rode through the night for two nights to reach Leith and search for you. Unfortunately, I was too late. I found you the first place I searched.”
“You mean Alaric is the one who found Olympia? I read her note in the story, but I hoped it didn’t end like that, not in real life…”
My eyes plead with hers to remember. Ineedher to remember.
“I didn’t find your note until much later. I went to the cliff even before crossing Leith’s gates when I returned. I went to the path that leads down to the rocks. I’d seen you out there at night so many times since we were kids, staring off into the sky as if you were waiting for it to talk back to you.”
“I believed it would.” Her eyes warm as a flicker of a memory seems to cross her irises.
“I was too late. The tide had pulled you under, and I fought it every stroke as I swam to the edge of the cave to reach your lifeless form. I performed resuscitation and breathing for thirty minutes in the pathetic hope that you were still there, still held life in your lungs that I only needed to bring back.” The memories claw at my throat as emotion swells. “The waves pounded me into the rocks—that’s what gave me these scars.” I reach her cheek and caress her hairline. “My visual reminder of the first night I tried to save you.”
“It wasn’t up to you to save me,” she whispers. “You’ve always been my hero, even before I realized it.”
I shake my head. “I found that amethyst gem clutched in your palm. I knew it was cursed then. I could feel it in a way I can’t explain.” Fable narrows her eyes as I finish speaking, then pulls out the very same gemstone.
“You’ve seen this before?”
I nod.
“It’s beautiful. I’m glad I found it that day at the bottom of the loch. Who would throw something so priceless into the muddy salt waters?”
“Me,” I reply.
