“Right. He did tell me that in a not so polite way in between fireball lessons at the wall.”
Staring at the small grin blossoming on his face, the reality of where she was came crashing down on her. She was in Elyria. WithCade. Reaching up to trace the bags under his eyes, so similar to her own, emotion barreled up her spine. His hair was longer than she’d ever seen it and there was a new scar above his eyebrow. Dirt and smoke stained his face, evidence of what they’d just fought and lived through. Astraeus had been close to being overcome.
So why was there so muchjoystirring in her gut?
“What’s wrong?”
Bridget didn’t realize she’d started crying until Cade’s fingertips wiped away drops of hot liquid running down her cheeks. “I’ve spent months beating myself up for missing you and wanting to be here,” she croaked. “And when I found out about everything… about you and us and why Cora came after me in the first place, I was sorelieved. It suddenly made sense why I always felt so out of place and couldn’t stop obsessing about what was going on here even after I was back with Nylah. But now that I’m here… did we do this?”
She gazed at the window. Though she couldn’t see anything but a dark night sky, she knew chaos still plagued the city. That workers and soldiers were fortifying the wall and sorting through the debris.
“Are we the reason for those creatures? Did we bring an entire war to the future just so we could try to be together?”
“Bridget…”
He didn’t have to finish his sentence for her to understand it was more than that. They’d needed more time to defeat Vega, according to Stellan. And resurrecting them in the future had ensured that. But she couldn’t ignore a stirring in her gut that there was more to it. That even back then, she hadn’t been able to let him go. Bridget let out a strangled laugh. “What does it say about me that I’m happy about it?”
Cade grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. “Hey, I’m happy too. I’ve felt like a ghost these past few months. It was like my heart had completely stopped beating until I saw you come out of that forest.”
Bridget’s heart throbbed. “I know how you feel,” she whispered. She’d barely felt alive since she’d woken up from her coma. But the knowledge about the past she’d learned from Stellan came crashing down on her. “What if me being here is wrong? Stellan tried to stop me from coming. He hid the gate from me. He only helped get us here because Nylah is sick and Marin needed help.”
He told me if I came back, people would suffer.
The sentence wouldn’t leave her throat. Itcouldn’t. Not when the emotion swimming in Cade’s eyes was tearing her to pieces.
“You being here could never be wrong,” Cade argued. He grabbed her hand and placed it on the center of his chest. His heartbeat pounded under palm. “Thisisn’t wrong. I love you. I’ve always loved you.”
“I love you, too,” Bridget choked. The room blurred as she placed a bruising kiss on his lips. She poured every ounce of longing she’d felt for him since she’d left and hoped it said everything she couldn’t.
She wanted to scream in protest when he broke the kiss. Cade’s labored breaths on her heated skin silenced her as he kept his lips a hairsbreadth away from her own. He looked almost as wrecked as she felt when he said, “I don’t care if fate or a curse brought us together. I would still choose you. In every life. Every time. I don’t need history to tell me that.”
Bridget wasn’t sure who moved first, but his kiss consumed her again. His tongue slid against hers, igniting a hunger that roared through her chest like wildfire. Every nerve lit up at once. Her hands roamed over the warm, solid lines of his back, nails scraping lightly along his skin. When his mouth found the hollow of her throat, a moan escaped her lips, unbidden and raw. His lips scorched a path from her jaw to her collarbone, each kiss like a brand against her skin.
Bridget tangled her hands in Cade’s wild hair. Breathless, she shoved off her jacket, and he helped her tug free of the green sweater clinging to her damp skin. His hands slipped to her waist, trailing over bare skin. Possessive and reverent all at once.
Cade froze when his fingers brushed against the new scar stretching from the bottom of her rib cage to her breast. His fingers brushed against the jagged skin where a bullet had ripped her open.
Bridget stilled. Her heart climbed into her throat. For a beat, she thought about reaching for her shirt. About telling him not to look. But he was already lowering to his knees.
Softly, Cade pressed his lips to the edge of the scar. Then again. Slower. Firmer. His mouth trailed down the twisted seam. She watched him, body trembling, as his fingers skimmed over her ribs with aching tenderness. Heat surged to Bridget’s core as she reached for him. Her fingers curled into the front of his torn shirt, tugging until he looked up at her again. The moment their eyes locked, electricity pulsed through her veins.
She didn’t want gentleness right now. She wantedhim. Like she always would. And not because they were finally safe, but because nothing about their world ever was.
When he started to rise, she met him halfway, capturing his mouth with hers in a kiss that was deeper. Fiercer. Her nails scraped across his shoulders, pulling him closer, until their bodies pressed flush together. Cade groaned low in his throat, hands gripping her waist like he might come undone if he let go.
Bridget spun them, backing him toward the bed until the backs of his legs hit the edge. He sat with a thud, but didn’t stop touching her. His hands roamed her back and her hips. She climbed into his lap and kissed him again, teeth grazing his bottom lip before his hands slid into her hair and he deepened the kiss until the world tilted.
She wasn’t sure when his shirt came off, only that her palms couldn’t stop tracing the hard lines of his chest. His muscles flexed and twitched beneath her touch. Her breath caught when he shivered.
Cade’s mouth brushed her shoulder, then lower. Bridget barely registered when he lifted her, gently laying her back against the cool sheets, his body hovering over hers. His fingers trembled slightly as they skimmed the edge of her ribs and the curve of her waist, like he was memorizing every piece of her.
The heat of his hands ignited something low in her belly. She arched into his touch, dizzy with the sensation of being completely unraveled. Cade kissed her again, this time slow and aching. And then, with one final breath, he entered her.
A rush of fire bloomed in her chest, stealing the air from her lungs. Flames licked through her veins, melting her into him until she wasn’t sure where she ended and he began.
And then when all that remained was heat and breath, she let the fire consume her completely.
Chapter nineteen
