“There’s a catch,” Alder finally whispered.
“There always is,” I whispered back against his lips.
“If we do this, there’s no going back. I can’t find a way. I’ve made my peace, but using the split is like antigravity. It goes against nature as the speed of light and sound are transcribed in each realm. It’s a fraction of a second at the most.”
“So, we have to be on our game, then?”
“We do.”
“And if we miss?”
He sighed. “There’s a chance you don’t ascend. You don’t make the next level. You’re stuck here.”
“Stuck? In Leith? In this in-between stage?”
“Stuck for an eternity. The lessons are harsher where you’ve been.”
“Leith Hall, where the walls are haunted with its ancestors.” I sighed. “I don’t know how the pain that bleeds from the pages doesn’t make Keats crazy up there every day.”
“It does,” he confirmed. “Especially on the full moon. Your senses have been so bright before now, but the nerve endings are like the leftover jolts in a dying electrical wire. I want you to savor every moment, Fable, because if we do this, they’ll be gone. I can’t promise that you’ll feel every sensation that the physical realm has to offer ever again.”
“The dreams,” I whispered. “Every moment with you was so real.”
“I tried to trip your subconscious memory once I realized you were so resistant in your waking hours.”
“You invaded my thoughts,” I accused, feeling a little violated.
“I tried to leave you feeling happy, even drugged with satisfaction, I daresay.” He pulled me closer for a moment and caught the edge of my throat with his teeth. A shudder coursed through me as I stifled a groan.
“It’s important to me that you savor each moment while it lasts.” He pushed a finger along the underside of my elbow. My nipples pebbled, and yearning surged like a newly lit candle in my core. I melted for him; I always had. He knew I never stood a chance at resisting his promise of pleasure.
And just like in the dreams, I fell into him.
He laid me back on the damp stone, sliding his cotton shirt beneath my back before slipping my shirt over my shoulders. He caught the edge of my bra with his teeth before pulling it down and sliding his hand along my breast and kneading softly.
“We’ve been falling in and out of love under the stars of Skye for centuries, Fable. And I’ve loved you more than myself in every lifetime up to and including this one.”
I pushed my fingers along the stretch of his broad back, tears slipping from my eyes when I realized he already didn’t feel as solid as I’d grown used to. My dreams felt like stronger experiences than the present moment, my limbs aching with a throbbing numbness that grew nearly unbearable with its existence. It didn’t hurt—Alder’s arms still brought me pleasure—but the awareness that my form was shifting was distracting, the senses with which I could perceive him changing across moments in our shared time.
I ached for us to be settled. Even if it meant living at his loch forever, I would take it over the hollow hole that resided in my chest cavity without him.
“Soon, this will be over. Soon, we’ll split our realities and become one,” Alder murmured as he entered me, our bodies working together in a slow rhythm. I crushed his body to mine, our forms melding as his hands swept my skin for the last time.
I teared up at the flickering impressions of him on my skin, goose bumps still traveling in his wake before he ground himself deeper inside me and locked our lips in a searing kiss. The salted waves rushed over our bodies as we made love under the moonlit sky. Stars crashed and burned above us as the darkness of another fate apart loomed at the edges.
According to Alder, by morning light, my last physical sensations would fade to smoke. I would be taken by the wind of Skye, hovering on the current, no more than a ghost in Leith’s tragic past. My heart ached as our blood bled as one, our souls knit through the threads of time as we came together in this life.
“If splitting our souls doesn’t work, I’ll never stop looking for you, Fable.” Alder said the words in a rush, our time together sizzling before the fading sense of evaporation began. The numbness shifted to euphoria, our bodies rushing together with the rhythm of the tide before the waves felt as if they were crescendoing inside me. My bones began to shake, my muscles trembling, and my own release built to a fever pitch until Alder whispered at my ear in a slow but insistent chant,“From ash to dust, from salt to Skye, may the souls be entwined of her and I…”
“Alder,” I breathed, feeling my voice tremble with the intensity of our frenetic coupling. “I need to know.”
“Anything,” he husked, driving into me with slow and measured thrusts that hit right where my body needed them to.
“How did I die? My last life? After…the tragedy at Leith.”
He didn’t answer for long moments, slowing his pace inside me but never stopping. He locked our fingers and pressed our foreheads together. “Youdidn’t.”
“What?”
