I grin, shaking my head. “Not by a long shot. You areyou.”
“And we’re together. For now?”
“Only for now.” I look up to the moon, measuring its crossing of the sky with my mind’s eye. “We have hours, maybe.”
“Until what?”
“Until you…” I press my lips together, hating to breathe the next part. “Pass over.”
“What?” She quakes in my arms, fury and desperation mixing in her eyes before she balls her fists tightly and bangs them against my chest. “Stop saying that.”
“You’re fading, Fable. Can’t you feel it?”
She pauses to glance at her hands. “I feel numb from the cold.”
“It’s not the cold. It’s you. I can hardly feel you against me, you’re fading by the moment. Your time with these physical sensations is finite. We have only hours before the split.”
“The split?”
“The split between realms happens at some stage. I’ve been watching you so closely. I could see each step this time in a way I didn’t have the opportunity to observe before. I have more connection to the physical now, can perceive more senses. That’s why I followed you. With your limited senses, I knew you might hurt yourself but also that you needed to learn as many lessons as possible at this phase before you fade altogether and split into another realm.”
“Oh God, what?” Anxiety cripples her, and she doubles over and drops to her knees. Her stomach is heaving and she’s about to be sick, but I know she hasn’t eaten in days, so she can’t conjure anything physical with her sickness. It’s just her body’s nerves living out the last blinks of sensation, like a phantom limb.
“Fable, I have an idea, but we have to move fast.” I drop to my knees and curl her into my arms. “I’ve thought this over from every side, read every book of magic and legend and lore I could get my hands on over the centuries. I think we can split time together and seal our fates.”
“Seal our fates?” She looks up at me, hopeful. “We could be together forever, like star-crossed lovers?”
I shake my head. “Not exactly,” I whisper into her hair. “We wouldn’t come back at all.”
“W-what?”
“We wouldn’t reincarnate. We would have no more lives. We would live here. Or anywhere you wanted, but we could stay together. No more searching for each other across time and stars. It’s just you and me.”
“And Keats?” she half jokes, and I appreciate that her sense of humor is still with her.
“No,” I breathe, “Keats will die soon. You and I are forever.”
“And what about Harris?”
My muscles bunch and tense with the mention of his name. “He will die as well. He was your last thread to the physical realm. That’s why he ignored you that day, Fable. He couldn’t see you anymore.”
“But, then how…how did I get here?”
“You came here alive,” I offer. “And you vanished within days. Harris and Keats have the gift of perception, but like a rubber band, their abilities have limits. And at some stage, neither of them could perceive your existence as they’d once been able to. Like the way a lightbulb flickers in the days leading up to the final burnout, Harris was able to see you…until he wasn’t.”
“Me?” She chokes. “I vanished?”
“You’re the new girl in the headlines.” I hold her tightly as I land the final blow. “There’s always a new girl.”
“I don’t believe you,” Disbelief rattles her voice.
“You’re written into legends, Fable. It’s your destiny. That’s why I’m offering you us. Walk away from that with me. Let’s make the curse work for us, not against us for once.”
“H-how?”
“We split reality together. I’ve already done it. That’s why I’ve been able to interact with you in a new way. I didn’t have the gem, though. I didn’t have the other half of my heart.” I clutch her hand to reassure her. “There are different realms of existence every soul passes through. The physical world is the realm most living humans are able to perceive, but I have a foot in both if I so choose it. I’ve hit pause on the energetic field between life and death. If we split together holding that gem, I know our existence will be fused, and I believe if we unravel the curse with a new fate… Well, it’s the only future I can see for us. We’re meant to be, that’s why you’re here. This lifetime is different from the others, our deaths were intertwined but not conjoined. But with this lifetime, for some reason, we have a chance.” She doesn’t answer for long moments, staring at our hands interlaced as the tide begins to rise. “Your purpose here is us.”
She nods finally. “Okay.”
