My heart thrums as I realize what she’s just said.
“What do we have to do?”
“Die. Together.Again.”
I’ve stolen the wind from her lungs in three words. “That’s the only way?”
I nod. “We won’t feel anything. Our perception of physical sensation is limited, especially yours.”
“And what happens if I don’t? I keep reliving the fate of Olympia? Fawn?”
I nod. “You’ll keep leaving your wild, beautiful imprint on history until you learn the lesson and generate enough good karma to make the next move.”
“The next move.”Her grin twitches once.
I smile, kissing her lips tenderly for a beat. Fuck, I love her so much it scares me. She’s my life, and I can’t live without my life if I lose her again. “I’m so glad you’re here.” Wetness from the waves and sky washes her cheeks. “I don’t understand it, not really.”
“No one does.”
“You do,” she accuses me. “Give me the map. How did you come to comprehend so quickly?”
“It wasn’t quick,” I confess. “I’ve been here a long time.”
“Years?”
“Decades,” I offer.
“That’s why you’re older but look younger than Keats?”
“Something split on a cellular level every time I lost you. I tried to save you, and when I couldn’t, I lost myself at the same moment you lost a life. In every lifetime since, I’ve never aged beyond the age I was when Alaric came home to find Olympia gone. That’s why I’m older than Keats, but he looks far beyond my years. He’s lived more life than I, it’s true.” I stop, then decide to push forward. “So have you. You’ve seen more darkness than you know. It’s time the light shone in. I think you found the gemstone when you needed it. I think it was of service, and it will be one more time.”
“So, is my soul fully stitched together now?”
“Not yet, but you’re getting there.”
“How can you tell?”
“It’s in the eyes. A soul stitched fully is a sight to behold.”
“You’ve seen one?”
“Nope. That’s another realm entirely. But I’ve seen the moment of stitching. You’ll know it when you see it. The souls you’re surrounded with now are relevant to your level in the game. You have only to look around to know where you stand—you are what’s reflected, like a mirror image. So many people never fully realize that. There’s more order in the other realms. Evil only exists here when you’re surrounded by the fallen—and, worse, they often believe themselves to be the most pious in their pursuits. That was my father’s experience anyway.”
“So, I went and fell in love with a ghost?”
I laugh. “I’m whatever you think I am. That’s the thing about being on the other side, perspective is always in the eye of the beholder. Humans get hung up on things like labels and outcomes. Life isjust another journey. Don’t attach feelings to the outcome of your own fable.”
Fable
Ifeel him.
I need him.
He and I are blood and bone.
It unnerved me at first. I hated that he knew more of me than I did. That he kept saving me from myself didn’t sit well either. But I understood it now; he was a part of my genetic memory. He was me, down to a cellular level. We were more than star-crossed. Our love was in our genes.
I welcomed his tender embrace, feeling the strong warmth of Alder and Alaric and Atlas and every other living and breathing man he’d been in the flesh when his love had been in my heart and I in his. Our love was ancient, older than the soil beneath us and the sky over our heads. Our love was fused with a bond of nature and a chant of love.
