I took in a deep breath before we lowered Gray under the water. Forcing my eyes open, I looked at his face. His eyes remained shut, robbing me of the brilliant blue they were. A sob escaped my lips when I realised I hadn’t told him I forgave him. That I hadn’t told him I loved him. That there was yet anotherloss in my life where I’d missed my opportunity. Another mistake that I would spend the rest of my life lamenting.
The air was quickly escaping me, and I pushed myself towards Gray with my lungs burning and pressed my lips against his, hoping that he knew that wherever he went next, I would always love him. One last kiss before my life would change forever.
The oleander in my bloodstream made everything hazy. The burning was white-hot, and I was disintegrating from the inside. There would be nothing left of me because it would be consumed in the inferno. It was becoming difficult not to give in to it. The pain and the darkness were overwhelming me and my strength was waning.
Quentin’s voice came to me intermittently. She said things I couldn’t quite comprehend, but I needed her to take the ring. My soulbound. My golden girl. I made her a promise, and I wanted to carry through on it. I needed to know she’d forgiven me for all I said and that she would still accept me. For so long, the world had been dark. I stalked through it as an invincible figure who couldn’t care less about the things around me. It was all trivial and pointless. How wrong I’d been. Quentin came into my life and lit it up in a way that I never imagined was possible. She made a life worth living for. No matter how short that life ended up being. What a blessing it was to have met her, to have had a taste of love that was fashioned only for my soul.
My eyes grew heavy until I struggled to keep them open. The ache in my side was still prominent. The burning was aggregating in my chest in such a way that I thought it would cave in from the pressure. I’d never asked Elva what accompanied death. Never grew curious about the path that it led us to. Whether it all grew black or it was simply another phase of the journey.
Elva. She would look after Quentin. Elva. Erik. Ignacio. Archer. Larkin. Sloan.
Names and faces. Faces and names. They came to me, close enough to touch before swimming away. It was only Quentin who remained. My golden girl was the beginning and the end for me. She was all my world comprised. She drew closer, and I wondered if she knew how much I loved her. If I’d shown it enough that it would last an eternity with her. Or if I’d fallen short of letting her know what she meant to me.
Lips met mine, soft and warm and filled with longing and regret. My hands reached out, clasping her waist as I returned the kiss. Who knew death could be so sweet?
The hollow feeling in my chest morphed into a swelling sensation of warmth. Not the white sweltering heat that the oleander brought forth but the liquid gold that only accompanied Quentin and her touch.
We broke the surface of the water, and Quentin pulled back, gulping in deep breaths of air. I pulled her flush against me, unwilling to let go.
“Gray?” Quentin breathed. “You’re alive. It worked.”
“Gray!” Erik sounded ecstatic. The most grateful he’d ever sounded to be in my presence.
When I turned my head to look at him, he glowed with his aura. The world was a shade of red with Erik at the centre.
Fingers pressed delicately against my chin, gently guiding me back to my soulbound.
“You can’t go back on that promise now,” I told her. “I fulfilled my end of the deal. You have to marry me.”
She threw her arms around my neck, hugging me with all her might. When she pulled back, I chased her lips with mine. The rush and the force of it left me light-headed.
“Gray,” she said, when we broke apart.
“What?” I asked, drinking her in. Her lips were plump and cheeks flushed with colour. Dark strands of hair stuck to her face.
“Your eyes…”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“Nothing. Nothing is wrong with them.”
The sound of splashing caught my attention and Erik was wading towards us, having backed off to give us space earlier.
“Your eyes,” he repeated.
“What?” I asked. “What is it?”
“One of them is brown.”
“Brown?”
Ig let out a laugh from the shores. “It worked. I can’t believe it actually worked.”
“What happened? How?” Quentin asked. “You said you didn’t know if it would. The pool saved him.”
Erik shook his head. “The pool didn’t save him.”
My brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
