“Please. With the way he looks at you and the way you looked when you saw him…” She huffs a laugh. “I know love when I see it, sis.”
I stand still a moment, unsure what to say to that.
“Gods, I hate feeling so weak,” she mutters as I slide a quilt over her. I’m grateful for the change of topic. I sit on the end of the bed, and she reaches for my hand.
“Will you be okay until we get to Junsho?” I ask, giving her my hand. “I can get you something to eat.”
“No, no.” She blinks slower, snuggling deeper into her pillow. “I think I just need to sleep for now.”
“Okay.” I squeeze her hand.
“Thank you, Zaira,” she murmurs, her eyes watering. “For everything. I don’t know what I would do without you. I love you so much.”
Warmth wraps around me as I smile at my sister, and it really hits me that she’s back. That I saved her from Seferin—now uncursed—and she’s on her way to restoration. There are things we’ll have to deal with later, like The Shadow Guild and Seferin’s wrath, but we’re safe for now.
Together.
That’s all I wanted.
“I love you, too,” I tell her, lowering so I can hug her.
“Forever?” she asks in my hair. I pull back a bit, and her eyelids flutter closed, already succumbing to sleep.
“And always,” I whisper.
She releases a long, satisfied breath, and I watch her a moment as the muscles in her face slowly relax and she slips into a soft slumber. I stand and drop a kiss on her cheek before looking at the cabin door. My mind instantly circles back to Thane.
I step outside and onto the deck again, spotting him sitting on one of the backless benches, nursing a wound on his thigh. He’s removed his mask and buffers and is wearing only a black tunic with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, black trousers, and boots.
Ocean mist sprays on my skin, and my hair blows in the breeze as I start his way. He raises his chin, gaze meeting mine when he sees me coming.
“Zaira—” He starts to stand up as I near him, but I stop him by placing a hand to his shoulder and easing him back down.
“Don’t,” I murmur. “You’re hurt.”
“It’s nothing I haven’t felt before,” he says, peering up at me with soft eyes.
I study all his other injuries. The gash on his bicep. The cut on his ear that is now caked in blood. The red mark on his cheek that will surely turn into a bruise. The crimson splotch on the white of his left eye.
He watches me as I inspect him, and when our eyes connect again, he cups one side of my face and says, “I’m so sorry for hurting you, Zaira.”
“Yeah.” I cling to his hand with my own, lowering my gaze to block the wave of sadness threatening me. “It did hurt. A lot.” He spreads his legs apart, and I stand between them, caressing his face, too, stroking the old scar that runs over his full lips. “I thought you were dead,” I say in a trembling voice. “I didn’t want you to die.”
“I would have for you,” he says. “Seferin wouldn’t have let you live—at least, not in peace. If he was going to take a life, I was going to make sure it was mine. That’s the least I could’ve done to make things right.”
I gently run my fingers over the top of his injured ear. “How would it have made things right if you weregone?” I ask, gripping his face in both of my hands now, wanting to shake some sense into him. “I would have lived with that guilt forever.”
“Wouldn’t have mattered.” He places a hand on my hip. “Your life would be better without me, Zaira, and we both know it.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true.”
My vision blurs and my mouth quivers as emotion clogs my throat.
“But since I’m here now,” he continues, “since I get the chance to see your beautiful face again, to breathe the air you breathe, and to feel your soft skin on mine, I plan to spend however long it takes proving I’m worthy of your trust.”
He brings himself to a stand with a mild grunt, now towering over me. I drop my arms as both of his hands cradle my face and crane my neck just enough to find his amber eyes.
