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What I mistook for weakness, you proved was strength. You saw our minds crumbling under the weight of time, so you asked the Well for more. You continued fighting to reunite with your love, even if that meant losing your cherished memories of her.
I have loved you as a brother. I have fought with you as such. What I should have done was listen to your advice. I should have kept fighting for those I love against all odds. I should have remembered I still had breath in my body, and blood in my veins.
I failed because unlike you, I wasn’t willing to give up my cherished memories. But it seems time has taken most anyway. All I have left are remnants of feelings. So, until we meet again, I will turn my last years of sanity to holding the fort. You said you would return and bring a new generation who will bear the torch for us. I didn’t believe you. But if you’re back, then it’s highly likely the rest of your prophecy will come true. New Well-blessed souls are awakening in Elphyne. I imagine there is much to do.
If you’re reading this, then our jobs are done. Go live your happily ever after before it slips through your fingers again. Leave the rest to the next generation. It’s their time now.
Yours,
Aleksandra.
P.S. If you’re still reading this, you haven’t heard a word I’ve said. Stop overthinking it. Stop feeling guilty about it. Just… go live. Then I’ll know at least one of us did something right.
ChapterForty-One
Leaf folded the letter and placed it down on the bedside table. He stared at the tree’s moving shadows outside, trying to process the words of a ghost. The Aleksandra today was never so emotional.
It felt good to know he never gave up searching for Nova. Instead, he’d asked for more time. But that was the only part he liked about the letter. Aleksandra became the Prime because he’d abandoned her. She said not to feel guilty or overthink it, but how could he let that go? She’d suffered because of him. She made her choices, yes. And she was likely on the same cold path anyway, but…
He scrubbed his eyes and exhaled. He let go of his tension and accepted his fate.
His job wasn’t done. Not until Nero was eliminated. But he wouldn’t do it alone.
Nova’s hands slid around his bare torso, and she kissed his shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”she asked.
Need swiftly built in his body, and the urge to be with her outshone everything else. She always had this effect—this way of pulling him back from the brink and grounding him. He understood why Crimson spent so long hunting her down, why he’d tethered her light to his wrist.
Leaf guided Nova’s hands south, bumping her fingers over his taut abdomen to where his erection strained against his leg. She made an appreciative sound and adjusted to kneel on her haunches behind him. Her thighs widened, and she pressed her body against the length of his back. Then she wet her palm with saliva and started stroking him.
“You haven’t answered me,” she murmured, amused as she pumped him hard. “But I’ll allow it. For now.”
A grateful smile touched his lips, and he rested his head on her shoulder. He let himself exist in the moment. He listened to her breathing grow shallow. When she started rocking her hips into him, he twisted, tossed her down on the bed, and drove his cock into her tight, slick core.
They made love with needy hands, mouths, and hearts. No memories invaded his mind this time. It was just the two of them in the moment, enjoying each other.
When it was over, and they lounged on the bed, he decided to show her the letter. Her eyes teared up when she read why he’d chosen his new name.
“I said that to you once,” she whispered, voice tight. “The bit about new life. You keep saying you’re not him, but a part of you remembered me.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but the haunting blare of a war horn outside cut him off. He jackknifed up, eyes wide.
“What’s that?” Nova asked.
“An alarm.” He grabbed the leather breeches he’d left nearby on the floor and tugged them on as he stood up.
“Is it time?” Nova scrambled to the edge of the bed. “The battle?”
He slipped on a loose undershirt, rushed to the window, and searched the grounds below. People had started to gather on the lawn. “Shit.”
Nova wrapped a sheet around her body and arrived at the window as he put on boots. She peered into the darkness and squinted, seeing what he had. All Guardians were dressed for battle. Others were rushing onto the field from either the barracks or the house.
She glanced at Leaf, stuck out her chin, and said, “I’m coming with you, so don’t try to stop me.”
He fitted his baldric over his jacket and glanced at the Prime’s letter. Alone was not a place he ever wanted to return to. He finished buckling, sheathedReckoningbetween his shoulder blades, and kissed her hard.
It lasted ten dizzying seconds, and then he rested his forehead against hers and admitted, “I’m not letting anything separate us. That means you’re sticking to me like glue.”
