The anger in his voice is new, and it excites me as much as it terrifies me.
“No, no. I told him to leave me alone and I drove myself.”
“You drove yourself?!” He spins back around to face me, eyes wide and manic. “That was so unsafe, Elijah!”
“I know!” I groan, throwing my hands up in defense. “But I couldn’t stand to be around him anymore, and I don’t know anyone else—”
“You know me!”
Silence stretches out between us, and I feel the beginnings of more hot tears as they slide down my cheeks.
Finally, I whisper, “But I had just watched you die. Or maybe die. And I couldn’t… I didn’t… It hurt too badly. It still hurts so badly.”
I’m wrapped up in his arms a moment later. Rowan squeezes me, as if he’s pushing his own essence into my body with each passing second. I take in large inhales of his flowery scent.
“Whatever horrible thing happened to us before, this isnow. Neither of us is dying. Okay?”he reassures me.
I find myself nodding, even as I’m still unsure if I believe in all of this fairytale bullshit. Everything in me is saying that this is too crazy to be true. But that logic is also battling with the understanding that nothing feels more right than being right here with Rowan.
“Wait,” Rowan says, pulling back just enough to see my expression. “Elijah, when is your birthday?"
“My birthday?” I ask in confusion. “Soon, actually. December 6th.” Rowan’s eyes close, and he takes a deep breath. “What?” I press again
“How old are you?”
I can see on his face that there is some sort of revelation happening here, one that I am not picking up on. I’m also uncertain as to why he’s bringing all of this up.
But Rowan looks as if he might keel over and die at any moment, all depending on my answer. Brows pinched, wide green eyes searching my own with a purpose.
“Twenty-six," I state. "What’s going on?”
Something that resembles a mixture of relief and elation settles over his features.
And then Rowan says,“I’m also twenty-six, and my birthday is December 6th. We were born in the same year on the same day.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rowan
Elijah stares back at me with a blank, unresponsive expression. He does not understand me.
“I know how old you are,” he says. “It’s on your website. Is it really that big of a deal that we have the same birthday?”
I can almost laugh at how insane this is, and how eager he is to pretend it means nothing.
“You just had a vision—”
“A dream," he interrupts.
“—where we both died together. And now we are realizing that we were both born on the same day.”
“I don’t… I don’t get it.” Elijah seems determined to let our relationship mean the bare minimum.
Even as he can acknowledge his intense attraction to me, he refuses to fully wrap his head around all of the other factors that align the two of us almost completely.
The moment he shared his vision with me, the moment I was told we very well could have died together, something inside of meknewthat he had to have been born onto this Earth on the exact same day I was.
We would have followed each other relentlessly, even into death. Just as two star-crossed lovers should.
