We hiked until the jungle opened to a wide, flowing river that spilled into a large pond. The air was thick and hot, making sweat cling to my back and dampened hair.
Without much thought, I stripped down to my underwear and dove headfirst into the water. The cold water wrapped around me, knocking the breath from my chest in an almost relieving way. When I surfaced, Finley stood watching me, her arms crossed and features uncertain.
I slicked water from my face while the current pulled me closer to her. “This”—I swept an arm through the water, sending a small spray at her—“is one of those small, carefree moments we talked about. Let yourself have it, Lolli.”
Her throat bobbed with her swallow. With a heavy exhale, she removed her clothes and boots, leaving her in her bra and underwear. And gods, the sight of her singed my soul so that my every heartbeat called out her name. It didn’t matter that I’d seen, touched, and tasted more the previous night. Finleywas even more stunning when she chose herself, chose her well-being and happiness.
She eased in slowly, gasping at the cold water before wading toward me. I grinned, drifting back to give her space, but then she clung to my shoulders and wrapped herself around me, her cheek finding its spot on my shoulder.
Here, with the river rushing and the jungle sounding around us, it felt like we were able to breathe again.
Her fingers braided through my hair while her breath fell as light puffs of air on my cheek.
“Thank you for coming with me,” she whispered.
I smoothed a hand down her back, loving the way she curled herself closer to me. “I told you. I go where you go.”
“I wanted you to come. Even when I said you shouldn’t.” Her admission came out small and a little broken. “I’m selfish when it comes to you, Brent. I’ve always been selfish and taken everything you’ve offered. I’ve hurt you so many times. Just last year . . .” Her breath hitched.
“It’s okay,” I soothed, wrapping my fingers through her hair. “I wanted you to take what I gave you. That’s why I offered it. Besides”—I gave her a slow, lopsided grin—“you don’t get to tally last year up and hand me some sort of emotional invoice.”
“You took care of Etienne in ways even I didn’t,” she said, tone still serious despite my tease. “You—gods, Brenton, you searched for him with me. You were the one who found him, and then you carried me to him. I relive that moment in my head over and over again.”
That old wound splintered open, as raw as the day I’d carried her through the castle. I could still feel the weight of her in my arms, too limp, her body slack from the magic she’d torn from within herself at the human compound. Her head had lolled back against my shoulder. Her skin was so cold and pale, I feared she’d slip away before I reached the third floor. Every step alongthe long corridor hollowed me, because I knew where I was taking her.
To him. Her intended, whom I thought she’d been in love with.
Her eyes had been dull and glassy from exhaustion until they landed on Etienne. Battered, broken, but alive.Alivebecause I had made damn sure of it. I’d thought the new light in her eyes meant she wanted him. That the bond we were reconnecting would go untethered once again.
Vith, it had ripped me apart. Carrying her to another male, believing I’d lose her forever. It was a cruelty I wouldn’t wish on my greatest enemy. But I’d do it again, a thousand times over, because all I had ever wanted was her happiness.
Even if it killed me to give it away.
That memory still lived in me like a blade, the sharpest reminder of what it meant to love. Her joy would always supersede my own.
“You carried your soul-bound mate to her intended,” she whispered, her voice cracking at the edges. “I love you for doing that. I love you for a million reasons, but I’m so sorry I put you in a situation that must’ve ravaged your soul.”
With her in my arms, I froze, unable to draw in a breath through my tightening throat. “You said you love me.” It came out raw and hoarse while my heart crashed against the confines of its cage, desperate to get out. “You said you love me, Lolli,” I repeated, my voice frail with hope and fear.
She drew back enough to look at me. Her eyes shone in a translucent white as if every feeling inside her had risen to the surface at once. The glimmer wasn’t one emotion but dozens. Grief and fear and longing threaded together like a fractured beacon that summoned me.
But what struck me, what fisted hard around my chest, was the tremor of hope buried there. Fragile and trembling but real.
“I did say that,” she said, her gaze on me although her voice wavered. “I do . . .” With a forced swallow, she tilted her chin up. “Love you, I mean.”
The world tilted, a beautiful shift I felt in my chest. My heart, already raw from too many open wounds, broke open for a completely different reason. Before I could stop myself, I closed the distance and kissed her. Desperate and ravenous, pouring every unanswered prayer and plea into the kiss.
Against my mouth, she let out a breath that was half laugh and the other part sob. But then she kissed me back. Just as desperate and wrecked. Her fingers curled against my skin, her mouth moving with mine like she’d been starved for this too.
For years, I’d imagined a million ways she might one day say those words. None of them came close to this. Her voice unsteady, her body trembling, but her lips telling me the truth with every frantic kiss.
She loves me.
I devoured her, my hand framing her jaw, sliding to her neck. She arched into me, pressing closer, and something inside me flared. It came so suddenly, so fiercely, I nearly broke the kiss.
It wasn’t magic. The island was stripped of it. But still our soul-mate bond surged. More than a pulse, but a burn, a tether pulling tight between us until it was all I felt in my chest. As if reminding us that no barrier, no absence of magic could sever what tied us together.
“I love you,” I rasped against her lips. The words ripped from me between frantic kisses.
