Liora stared at the crystal chandelier. “Oh no.”
“Don’t.” His voice was firm. “They’ll find it. And if for some reason they can’t.” The end of that sentence hitched, like his voice was caught on something. “I’ll find it.”
She looked at him. “You?”
“Me.”
“Maldenis,” she began, trying to gather the emotions slowly brewing inside her. “One year and one day. We agreed?—”
“I know what we agreed to.”
“So, you understand that in a few months we go back to our lives and you go back to your bar and?—”
“We’re not.”
She blinked. “We’re not what?”
“Divorcing.” He said it the same way he’d saidI’ll find it.
Like it was already decided.
Like he’d had a while to sit with it and had arrived at the only possible conclusion.
“We’re not doing it.”
“And why not?”
“Duh,” he said without missing a beat. “Because I love you.”
He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. No speeches, grand gestures. Just…exactly the way he would do it.
“You love me,” she repeated.
“I do. Embarrassingly so, if we’re being honest.” He tilted his head. “Your turn.”
“Your turn?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s not how this works.”
“Oh, isn’t it?”
They stared at each other for a long time, waiting for the other to break, as if the first to speak would be the loser.
Liora supposed, just this once, he could win. “I love you too,” she said. “You complete and utter menace.”
His mouth spread into a smile. “See? That wasn’t too hard, was it?”
She laughed, which pulled at something in her side and made her wince. “I’m fine,” she assured him as he quickly reached for her. She grabbed his hands instead and folded them into hers. “Really, I am. And, I guess I should say I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? No?—”
“It wasn’t fair what I said to you about your past, especially now that you’re trying to make amends. I shouldn’t even have said it, then all the hunters came and the giant explosion nearly killed me.” He paled at her words, but she squeezed his hands in a gesture that let him know she was here, alive. “But, you’re right. Korinnae shouldn’t have to hide who she is, not if that’s what she wants. And we will protect her. After all, she’s also your sister.”
“I…yes.”
A strange expression passed over his face; likely, he hadn’t processed that information yet, but Liora trusted he’d be able to navigate those feelings. And she’d be there with him.
“I’m sorry too,” he said. “I shouldn’t have said what I said before about you. The best thing about you is that you care about others and want what’s best for them. Don’t you ever change that about yourself. It’s one of the things I love about you.”
“Oh?”
