"I felt you fading."
His lungs seized. Every muscle locked.
"At the end. Through the bond. When you were saving me, you were pouring everything into me, and I felt you slipping away. Your presence getting weaker and weaker." Her fingers pressed harder against his chest. "And I couldn't do anything. Couldn't help you. Couldn't stop it. I just had to feel you dying while I lay there unable to move?—"
Her voice broke.
His hands came to her face, cupped her cheeks, tilted her head up so she had to look at him. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you felt that?—"
"Don't apologize." Her eyes were bright with tears. "You saved me. I just… I needed you to know. That it wasn't just you watching me die. That I felt you dying too, and it was—" She stopped. Swallowed hard. "It was the worst thing I've ever felt."
His throat closed. He pulled her against his chest, held her tight enough that she had to feel his heartbeat. "I'm here. I'm alright."
"Promise me something." Her arms wrapped around him, clinging.
"Anything."
"Promise me you won't sacrifice yourself for me again. That if it comes down to a choice, you'll choose yourself."
His jaw clenched. The words she was asking for stuck in his throat. "I can't promise that."
She pulled back enough to look at him. "Dante?—"
"Would you make that promise to me?" He held her gaze, let her see the truth he couldn't hide. "If our positions were reversed? If I was dying? Would you choose yourself over me?"
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Because they both knew theanswer. Had known it since the moment she'd reached back for him while scattering. Since the moment he'd poured his soul into her dying body.
"Exactly." His voice came out quiet. "So don't ask me to promise something you couldn't promise either."
"I hate that you're right." She pressed her forehead against his chest, right over his heart. "I don't want to lose you."
"You won't." His arms tightened around her. One hand sliding up her back, the other cupping the back of her head. Holding her like she was precious. Like she was everything. "We're bound now. Where you go, I go. Even death can't separate us anymore."
They stayed like that, just holding each other in the warm water while steam rose around them. His chin rested on top of her head. Her heartbeat steady against his chest. Their breathing falling into sync.
This. This was what he'd been terrified of losing. Not just her life. But these moments. This connection. The way she fit against him like she'd been made for his arms.
Finally, she tilted her head back. Looked up at him with eyes that had gone dark.
"Kiss me."
His hands tightened on her reflexively. "You should rest?—"
"I want you." Her hands slid up his chest, over his shoulders, fingers curling into his hair. "I want to feel you. Want to prove you're really here and I'm really here and we're both alive." Her voice dropped lower. "Please."
His hand came up to cup her face, thumb brushing across her cheekbone, feeling the warmth of her skin. Her pulse fluttered beneath his palm, where it curved around her jaw.
Alive. She was alive.
He closed the distance and kissed her.
LXXXII.
BRYNN
The moment his mouth met hers, everything else fell away.
The fear. The exhaustion. The lingering terror of almost losing him.
