Gripping her with all the tender might I can muster, I spin her, thendrive her toward the cliff face until her chest is pressed against the mossy rock. One hand catches hers behind her back, the other splays across her jaw.
I push her head to the side, forcing her line of sight in the direction of my makeshift camp nestled at the mountain’s base. A camp I’ve been living out of for the past two daes while hunting game for the village, hoping she’d venture close.
Beggingthe Creators for it.
Her gaze flicks between the tools, the slumber-roll I slept on alone, the small campfire I used to cook my last meal. The pile of carcasses I’ve been gutting, filling their cavities with a mixture of salt and herbs to keep them preserved until I make it back to Beluhn. Preferablywithher.
Although she’s observing it, I’m certain she’s notseeing. Not as she continues to thrash and snarl.
“I know it’s tempting to disappear, to hide from it all, but you can’t take me there, Raeve.”
Some of the fight leaves her body. A crack in her armor.
The faintest glimmer of hope.
I push forward until my lips brush the shell of her ear, kneading all the fucking ache in my chest into a single sentence.“You can’t take me into the wild with you.”
Much as I’d love nothing more than to let go of everything buther …I can’t.
Should she not make it out of this; facing her daughter, telling Kyzari her mah lives but all that’s left of her isthis— That’s my penance for missing so much. For not trusting in our love all those phases ago.
For not chasing her sooner.
I fill my lungs with her scent, close my eyes, and rest my forehead against her temple. “Come back to me, Raeve …”
My plea goes unanswered, making me wonder if that crack wasn’t in her armor at all. If my thirsty heart is sensing hope where there is none.
If I’m already too late.
So fucking close to beinghers. To having the great honor of being able to sleep beside her, wake with her, prepare her meals for the rest of my daes. Being able to share our highs and lows and build a better world together. Oneworthyof her daughter.
So.
Fucking.
Close.
Yet so far away.
I clear my throat and let go, surprised to see she doesn’t move—heaving breath as she scans my camp with her cheek still pressed against the cliff.
More false hope.
I turn, moving for my clothes, each step akin to stripping one of the veins from my chest.
Silently, I beg the Creators that she doesn’t lunge at me again. It goesagainst the grain of my soul to turn from her—to say no to the female who rules over every bit of my being—but we can’t have each other like this.
I’d fall away with her. Fail this wounded world I pledged myself to care for through the shedding of too much blood. Fail herdaughter.
There is no honor in that.
I fist my tunic, whip out the creases.
“Kaan …”
My lungs empty with a soft moan at the sound of my name on her lips, hoping with every hitched beat of my heart that I didn’t just imagine it.
I lift my chin, looking at her dragon feasting in the distance. “Yes, Moonbeam?”
