“Anything else?” said Kai.
“A few scratches, some stitches. I’mfine.”
“Good.”
And with that, he took her face between his hands and kissed her.
Perhaps she ought to have pushed him away or gone rigid with shock that he’d be so brazen in front of the Healers - she hadn’t missed their collective gasp - but it was without a second thought, or any thought at all really, that her arms came up around his neck and she sank deep into his kiss.
“Your shoulder needs time –” someone said.
“Leave them be,” said the Healer.
There was a flapping of canvas as they exited the tent, and then, as though he’d been holding back for it, Kai tilted her head and slipped his tongue between her lips and she was lost.
When they finally came up for air, he ran a thumb over her mouth and Adeline could only stare up at him.Hehad stormed in here,hehad kissed her; if there was something to be said, she would let him say it.
“There was a moment, out there, when it seemed Doran was intent on splitting your skull across the ice -”
The thumb on her lip was trembling; his whole hand was, she realised. Adeline took it and laced their fingers together.
“He didn’t. My head is entirely intact, see? I’m still here.”
He looked down at their hands. “This time you are. But last night you asked me about my feelings for you, and I... Watching that, I honestly wondered if I’d ever have another chance to tell you.”
She nudged him under the chin with her free hand until he met her eye.
“Then tell me.”
“You terrify me.”
She laughed; she couldn’t help it. He hadn’t missed a beat. Of all the things she thought he might say, this wasn’t it.
“In a good way I hope?”
He didn’t smile, glancing again at their entwined fingers. “In an entirely too-distracting way.”
Not quite the romantic declaration she’d been expecting after that dramatic entrance. Disappointment swept through her, leaving her muscles weak in its wake; her fingers went limp in his and her hand fell from his face. She started to pull away, but Kai gathered both her hands up urgently and pressed them to his chest.
“Adeline, no, this isn’t coming out how I mean it to. I just –”
He broke off; took a deep, shuddering breath.
“Watching Doran crush your throat, my heart stopped.Stopped. I spent six hundred years drowning under that ice. I’ve spent months on land, choking on fog and frost. And somehow, the only time I’ve ever truly wanted for breath is when I’m with you. When I thought, even for a moment, that I might lose you – that was suffocating. It felt like I was dying. Even after everything I’ve lived through, watching the light dim from your eyes felt like the end for me.”
Kai hesitated, pausing as if she might stop him. But Adeline couldn’t have spoken if she’d wanted to; shedidn’twant to. She watched him nod slightly at her wide-eyed silence, steeling himself, his throat bobbing before he spoke again.
“And if it's not obvious by now; I’m yours, Adeline.” He shrugged, helplessly. “Heart, breath, all of it belongs to you. Everything.”
His heart was thundering under her hands, and her own pulse echoed every beat, reverberating throughout her body, roaring in her ears until it was a wonder she could hear him at all. But she could.
She heard every word.
He leaned in, his hand releasing one of hers to cup her face.
“Everything.”
He emphasised that last word again, his too-bright gaze holding hers, searching for understanding. And after the slow passing of a moment, she thought perhaps she did understand.
