“You have no idea,” he returned hoarsely, pulling her even closer, until there was no space left between them. “Every day, every minute, every second of the last seven years, all I thought about was finding my way back to you. And now that you’re here, standing in my arms, I’m terrified I’m going to wake up and realize this is all a dream.”
Viri swallowed against the lump in her throat. She drew back slightly, but only far enough to look at his beautiful face. “If it is, then I’m dreaming, too. And I never want to wake up.”
Reeve’s eyes softened at her admission. But then a hint of familiar wryness touched his features. “Finally something we can agree on.”
Despite the torrent of emotions she was feeling, Viri couldn’t keep her mouth from quirking upward. “A miracle.”
As if he could sense how desperate she was to not fall back into her despair just yet, Reeve’s tone shifted into somethinglighter, something more conversational. “Speaking of miracles,” he mused, “for a while there, I feared I might need one of those. But I think I’m going to be all right now that your memories are restored.”
Viri’s brow furrowed, not following. “What?”
“In fact,” he went on, as if she hadn’t spoken, “I’d go as far as to say it’ll be almost too easy for me to prove you wrong.”
Viri’s confusion only grew. “About what?”
Reeve’s lips curled up at the edges—the only warning she had for what he was about to say next. “When we were in the Summit, you swore there would never come a time when you’d ask me to kiss you again.” Her breath hitched in surprise—and something else entirely—causing his smile to widen. “We both know you were struggling to keep your word when you hated me, but now…” His eyes sparkled knowingly in the moonlight. “Let’s face it. You don’t stand a chance against my vast array of charms.”
Heat touched Viri’s cheeks, but she grabbed on to the reprieve he was offering and squinted incredulously at him. “Vast array of charms?” Her squint deepened. “Who’s been lying to you?”
A delighted laugh left him, his relief at having helped ease her pain clear to see—and soothing something deep within her. “That hurts, Little Shadow.”
“The truth often does,” she said. But then she added, “You deserved it. We were having a moment, and you ruined it.” She would be forever thankful that he had, that he’d known her well enough to give her exactly what she’d needed, just like always. Butevenso…
Reeve arched a brow. “A moment?”
“We were sharing ourfeelings,” Viri said. “Something that’s clearly a foreign concept to you.”
His brow arched higher. “I’m pretty sure my prediction that we’ll be making out again in the near future is covered under the topic of ‘feelings.’ ”
Viri rolled her eyes. “So presumptuous.”
He smirked. “Am I wrong?”
She pressed her lips together and looked away.
Reeve chuckled, knowing he had her. But then he sobered again and trailed his fingers across her dried tear tracks, quietly asking, “Better?”
Viri swallowed and nodded. She wanted to stay in the lighthearted bubble he’d just given her forever, forgetting everything she’d remembered about her parents, her brother, and the Reaper Lord, forgetting the threat of the Aurora Comet hanging over their heads and how they still needed to figure out how to save Jessalyn and the other children—and the city. She wanted to stay in this magical garden with Reeve’s silver eyes locked onhers…
Just as she wanted to utter those two words he already knew she was longing to say:Kiss me.
But she couldn’t do it—not yet. Because as much as she wished she could ignore the questions nudging at her mind, they were becoming more insistent with every passing second. When she and Reeve finally kissed again, she wanted no distractions, and that wouldn’t be possible unless she received some answers first.
Clearing her throat, she eased away slightly and made herself say, “I need to understand what happened that day. What went wrong with the obelisk? How am I alive if you siphoned from me? Why didn’t your veins turn black? Why could I see reaper veinsat all?” She ticked the questions off her fingers, finishing with, “And what does the Reaper Lord want with me?”
Reeve’s gaze slid past her shoulder just as a warning seared across her palm. “I think someone else would like to explain.”
Viri turned to find Braedan walking across the courtyard toward them, looking apprehensive enough that she half expected him to bolt back into the castle. But he continued striding forward, his torn green cloak billowing behind him until he halted beside the pond where she stood with Reeve.
For a long moment, no one spoke, the tension so thick that even the glowmoths kept their distance.
“I’ll just…go for a wander,” Reeve said, glancing between the two siblings. “It’s not every day I get to explore an ancient magical castle.” That was true, though he couldn’t have been more obvious about giving them privacy. “Come find me when you’re done, and we’ll make a plan to stop the sacrifice.”
Viri only had a second to note Braedan’s nervous but grateful look before her focus was wholly diverted when Reeve leaned in and pressed a whisper-soft kiss to her temple. She sucked in a startled breath, and then shivered when he murmured into her ear, “I won’t be far if you need me.” His hand trailed down her side until his fingers twined with hers, squeezing once. “Whatever happens in the days ahead, that’ll always be true. No matter how dark the shadows seem, you’ll never be alone in them. I promise.”
There was a strange weight to his words, and an even stranger expression on his face before he wiped it clear, his emotions passing too quickly for Viri to read them all, but she could have sworn she saw uncertainty, dread, and even a hint of despair. They were gone again in an instant, though, replaced by an encouraging lookas he prodded her toward Braedan, then turned on his heel and left the glowing courtyard, vanishing between a pair of pillars back into the castle.
The silence was even more tense with Reeve gone, enough that Viri hugged her elbows, having no idea what to say. Braedan had sacrificed seven years of his life for her, and the whole time, she’d been hunting him, consumed by her desire for vengeance over something he’d never done. She wasn’t sure whether to leap into his arms and sob her gratitude, or curl into an ashamed ball while begging for his forgiveness.
