“Does that matter?”
“Your family? What you do with your time?” she pressed.
“I walk through the woods. Collect things. I have a mother. A sister.” I threw the answers at her, hoping with every fiber of my being that they were enough to satisfy her, to convince her that I wasn’t mindless and empty. That I was worthy of her.
She kept going. “Your name? Don’t tell me it’s actually Shade.”
“Shade is a perfectly fine name.”
“But it’s notyourname.”
“And what makes you so sure?”
She contemplated for a moment. “It doesn’t fit. I thought it did, at first. But it doesn’t.”
“Whatever you say, wife. I’m just happy you’re alive. You can call me whatever you’d like.”
“Not your wife,” she grumbled. “So why wouldn’t you speak to anyone else?”
“I told you. I wanted to see that you were okay.”
“I’m sure the others told you I was alive.”
I scoffed. “Those fools? They threw me down here; they would say anything to make me cooperate. I needed proof.”
“Fair enough. And what if I had died?”
My stomach roiled.
She watched my face closely, though I could see how tired she was from simply leaning against the bars. I ached to slip my arm around her waist, to hold her up. Or, better yet, to scoop her into my arms like I had in the woods.
The darkness around her thickened, and she seemed to ease a bit.
I had to swallow twice before I could speak. “You didn’t.”
“But if I had passed beyond the veil? Would you have stayed down here forever, refusing to speak to anyone?”
“If you had died, Ginger, I would have gone with you.” After destroying everything I could get my hands on.
You are my life now,is what I didn’t say aloud.
She rolled her eyes. “That’s not true. You would have spoken to someone eventually.”
“You are the only one worth speaking to.”
“You’re strange. And very intense. Did you know that?”
I nodded once. “I can be strange. As long as I am also yours.”
Exasperated, she took a step back. “You’re relentless.”
“You have no idea what I’d be willing to do for you, wife.” I shoved my heart into my voice, begging her to hear it in my words.
“And if I ran?”
“I would follow you anywhere.”
She knocked on the stone wall, raising her voice weakly. “You can come down now!”
