The tears wouldn’t end, wetness imprinting on my cheeks, soaking into his shirt. I clutched him hard, waiting, wishing for a response yet knowing there wouldn’t be one. I had walked outwhen he needed me most, and that truth would haunt me for the rest of my life.
A hand rested on my back, warm, heavy, and reassuring.
A gasp sounded from behind me, and I sat up. The hand slid down my back but remained pressed against me.
Cillian stared at me. Those magnetic golden eyes were open.
I choked on a breath. “Are you…?”
His hand drifted up and down my back, and a riot of emotions welled inside me. The feel of his palm against me, the sheer electricity of his touch confirmed this was real. This wasn’t in my imagination.
“You came back,” he murmured, his beautiful eyes softening.
“I promised I would.” The words came out raw, my cheeks wet with tears. “Fuck, why didn’t you tell me? I never would’ve left if I’d known…”
“You love me?” he asked, his tone low and gravelly and hesitant.
“More than I believed possible,” I responded. I gripped his shirt, meeting his gaze head-on. He was here. He was here and talking to me, and I wouldn’t waste another second. “And I’ll continue to love you for as long as you’ll have me.” He stroked my back, even though he didn’t move from his spot—most likely too weak.
His lips twisted in a wry smile. “What about forever?”
My heart squeezed tight. “You’ll get sick of me.”
“Never,” he responded. “In case it wasn’t clear, I’ve been in love with you for a damn while now. And I didn’t think that was possible for me.”
Those words offered a balm to my soul I hadn’t realized I needed. While our relationship had been tumultuous and full of fireworks from the start, this confession settled in like a spring breeze. It carried the same scent of early blooms and promise, a fragility and hope there that I clasped tightly to me.
A cough sounded behind us. “As toothache-sweet as this reunion is, holy fuck, Cillian,” Amelia said, dropping to the ground beside me. I didn’t let go of him, not for a second, but I understood they were worried about him as well.
“I thought you were dead,” Charles said, his voice hauntingly quiet. “How….?”
“Do you need help up?” Theo asked. “Or are you planning on lying around down there for the next century?”
I shook my head and wiped my tear-blurred eyes on my sleeve. I hadn’t let go of Cillian’s shirt, and I wasn’t planning on it. He was lying here in front of me talking, moving, smiling at me. Telling me he loved me. The ache inside me transmuted to something different, yet consuming all the same. Not the agony of loss, but the depth of a love I’d never tapped into before.
More powerful than anything I’d experienced in this life.
“If you want to give me a hand…” Cillian said. “Can’t get upright on my own.”
“I’m waiting on an explanation,” Charles said. “So how about you conserve your energy for that.”
Theo snorted and settled behind Cillian, and I gripped Cillian’s arms as together we got him upright. Once he was stable, I slid my hands down until they were interlinked with his, mine feeling small in his massive clutch. I wasn’t moving an inch away from him. Part of me was terrified that if I looked away, he’d vanish before my eyes.
Cillian heaved out a weary sigh. “Truthfully, my best guess is that you managed to get to me in time. I’ve studied the curse a dozen different ways, searching for a loophole or anything I could do to combat it. Once activated, it worked as a life drain, which would explain why I’m so weak right now.”
“So you weren’t quite dead?” Charles said, disbelief ringing in his voice.
“If he was entirely dead, he wouldn’t have been able to come back,” Amelia confirmed. “I do know a thing or two about those types of curses.”
“Is the rose tattoo still on you?” I asked, checking his forearm. Where once there’d been the intricate black rose tattoo, only smooth red skin remained. Relief rushed through me in a fierce sweep.
“Yet now Thorin gets your company,” Charles said. “I watched you sign it over to Olivia and Henrick.”
Cillian’s crooked smile sent a pang through my heart. Even though today had been hell and my mind, body, and soul had been through the wringer, I understood a bit about how he operated.
“Upon your death, I presume.”
Cillian shook his head at me, an unguarded wonder in his eyes. My heart soared. “I’ve never met anyone cleverer in my life.”
