“It was Dellilian,” I answer hoarsely. I did inhale enough to cut into my windpipes and make my throat raw though. “She showed up to cover my face and create an air pocket for me to last long enough for my dad to come get me.”
“She did?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
He rubs a dry, windburned hand over his facial hair, but has nothing to say on that.
After a minute, tears burn the backs of my eyes. “My dad came for me.”
“I know.”
I can feel Niklaus’s eyes on me, examining the tears build over my gaze.
“He saved my life.”
“Yes.”
“I’m a perfect stranger to him with no emotional ties whatsoever. And he still came for me when he heard me scream knowing it could have been an ambush.” A tide breaks in my chest. “DaiSzek was captured because of it.”
“Maybe not,” he says quietly.
“Maybe not what?”
“Maybe you weren’t a perfect stranger to him when he found you.”
“Of course, I was.” I lower my head. “He doesn’t even know who I am in the future.”
Niklaus turns his body an inch to get a better look at me. “I know that. But I’ve seen and heard of impossible things from your family. My mother once told me that your parents are warrior angels sent from God to stop a great evil. She’s told me they are soulmates, and their souls would recognize each other in any life. I always thought that was a load of crap meant to build up their lore, but…”
“But what?”
For once, his eyes don’t feel like knives. Those storm-dark, oceanic blues pin me in place. It’s cold water on my skin and scorching red fire in my chest.
“But I’ve been thrown back in time by your hand, Spitfire. I’ve watched you wield time like a weapon and scalp a woman, turning the clock forward on her hair. You and your family have done impossible things. So, what if my mother was right? If your father’s soul can recognize your mother’s…can it also recognize his own daughter’s?”
More tears bully their way in, but I hold them back.
“I hope so,” I whisper.
My palms press into my eyes, pushing away the sadness and exhaustion clinging to my skin like a disease.
“You’ve never been this nice to me. I’ve known you for twenty-one years,” I tell him, sniffling against the back of my hand.
“I’m aware of that.”
“Then why?”
Niklaus’s demeanor hardens. “We’ve been through a lot.”
“But you’ve always hated me.”
“No, I have not.”
“Lie.”
“I liked you a lot before I was taken, Spitfire. You were my first crush,” Niklaus says.
This wakes me up a little. “Before I…gave you that wood carving?”
