“Oh my god,”poured out of me in a broken whisper.
Stone tucked my hair behind my ears, continuing, “Over a hundred years were thrown between us, and I still found you, and I’ll keep finding you. I willalwaysfind you.”
“Stone,” I said, my head shaking because I didn’t know what to say.
“Defy them, darling.” His whisper spilled inside me, and he snaked an arm around my back and pulled me flush against him. “You’ve only cried when you were sad. I need you to tell me these aren’t sad tears.”
I sniffled, trying to find words. “But only a high priest can marry us.”
“And I have every intention of marrying you the right way, so I need to know if this is your version of a yes.” He held my face back, his hooded eyes falling upon mine. “What do you choose?”
I didn’t have to think. “You. I choose you. Always.”
A blend of relief and intense emotion moved across his face like an eclipse as he looked at me, his chest rising and falling. And then he was kissing me. Andkissing me. Deeply, eternally.
Not ten minutes later, it was only Stone and I standing before Clarence in a room surrounded by books as the blue moon threaded through the window between us.
I was wearing someone else’s sweatpants and sweatshirt.
Stone was wearing a white tee and sweatpants.
My hair was a mess, and I had no make-up on.
Our fingers were woven together as Clarence tied a blue ribbon around our wrists, eyes deeply rooted to each other, crazy in love. “Hence, the first binding is made with dark blue, symbolic of water, that your love may fill you to the depths ...” Clarence’s voice faded into the background when Stone’s gaze turned eternal, his hand turning over in mine so that my fingertips were grazing the scar in his palm.
Suddenly, a vision appeared in my mind.
It surprised me, causing me to flinch, and Stone held my wrist, guiding me to keep my fingers in his palm. I glanced quickly at Clarence, and he was still reading from the book. When I looked back at Stone, a small grin played on his lips. He raised his palm, prompting me to continue, so I did.
I drew circles over his palm, and the vision came again.
It was Stone’s memory, so I was looking at myself, like a film on a projector in the corner of my sight. This vision was a series of pictures in a linear sequence motion that brought this collection of stills to life. A flip book of us in the cave.
This is Stone’s memory, my mind repeated, and it was why I was feeling everything he felt in that moment I’d held a knife to his throat.And my heart is beating so fast, and I’m afraid. Not afraid of dying but afraid of not being able to hold myself together, to remain calm, because ... She’s looking at me, and I could simply fall apart.
“Are you watching?” he whispered, and I nodded.
Stone wet his lips, giving Clarence a side eye to see that he was still reading. “In this second binding, the green color represents Earth, indicating that your love will be wise and nurturing, and your happiness will be plentiful...” Then Stone discretely reached for my free hand.
He took one, slow step forward, bringing my hand under his shirt and against his warm skin on his side, where glass was once stuck inside him. Clarence didn’t notice what we were doing in secret.
Once Stone’s hand came over mine, and he pressed my palm against his skin, another vision came. And it was our first kiss in the lighthouse, and I’m him again, feeling gentle hands, soft lips, and broken breaths; my heart is aching for this, nerves making my pulse shake because I fear I’ll do something for this moment to stop, and I don’t want it to stop; please, do not stop.I looked into Stone’s unmasked eyes, and he looked into mine. He stood nervous, exposed, vulnerability in his eyes as he let me in. And in the corners of our minds, we’re watching our first kissas a tongue slips into my mouth, and I taste us. An explosion of emotion consumes me, warmth spreads throughout my body. A mania. Half abandon, half claim.
Unable to take anymore, Stone removed my hand from his side and brought my fingers to his face. He stepped closer, no longer caring for the distance between us. He guided my thumb to graze his cheekbone. The teardrop scar.
Around our bound wrists, Clarence wrapped a red ribbon. “A third binding is made with red, symbolic of fire, in order to symbolize deeply passionate love...”
Stone and I looked into each other’s eyes, watching me strike his cheek with my palm,and it hurts in my heart, not on my face. It hurts,but this wasn’t what he wanted me to see or feel. It was what came next,and our eyes catch, skin against skin, blonde wisps of hair in my face, flares of starved, green eyes, waves of warmth crashing into me one after the other, pure bliss, so light it could take me to my knees, so heavy it could take me to my grave; the feel of her bound to me, the taste of her on my lips, the smell of her surrounding me, the sound of her breathing, the way she’s holding me, all of me, this is deeper than mere pleasure as it feels like something good inside her is slowly rushing through where we’re connected and making its way into me; my blood is pulsing, I’m on the edge, crumbling like sand; she’s stealing me slowly, and it feels like my heart is beating out of my chest, because this is the moment, and there’s nothing I can do to stop myself, and I’m terrified; stone not paper, I scream, but it’s already too late; I keep falling apart; again and again, I fall apart.
“The fourth binding is therefore made in light blue, the color of the sky, to symbolize the limitlessness and spirit of your love,” Clarence finished, bringing us back.
My hand slipped from his face, but the memory didn’t vanish as I expected. It broke into thousands of pieces and fell to the floor of my mind.
Stone moved his fingers up to my wrists on both arms, feeling my pulse race as he faced Clarence. As if he couldn’t look at me anymore, like he was embarrassed. I studied the side of his face as he kept his eyes on Clarence, unable to come down from his emotions. I just stood there, my eyes tracing his profile that gave nothing away, feeling raw. Like there was no skin on my heart, so everything was intense.
This was how he felt while fucking me that first time, and my heart couldn’t calm. My chest was rising and falling more rapidly. And how could he just stand there and feel like this?
“Do you have rings?” Clarence asked.
