She had made her peace with the woman she had become.
The question now was whether he could.
Neither of them moved.
The air between them hummed with everything left unsaid.
Cormac leaned in.
“I’m not the same girl who came to this house,” she blurted out.
Cormac sat up straighter. “I know that. How could you be?”
Her breath was coming fast, fear mixed with excitement. “I can’t be the girl you fell in love with. The girl who danced barefoot at the harvest festival.”
“Aoife, you’ll never stop being that girl.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I mean it. The girl I fell in love with is the one who looks at the world and thinks it can be made better. The one who cares about everyone else more than herself. The healer who won’t turn anyone away.”
His voice softened.
“That girl’s still right here.”
A tear slipped down her face, and she tried to keep her voice steady. “You said that if I changed, I’d be lost to you.”
“Oh, Aoife.” He reached for her hand. She pulled it away on instinct. Cormac looked as if she’d hit him. “I didn’t mean… not like that.” He took a shuddering breath. “I don’t know what I can say to make this better.”
Aoife’s eyes were wet with unshed tears.
“I love you, Aoife. Yes, you’ve changed, but not in any of the ways that matter. I don’t care what clothes you wear or how you speak.”
“What if I’m broken?”
The words slipped out before she could stop them.
Cormac didn’t speak; his face softened as though he understood more than she had meant to say.
Aoife forced the rest out, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I let him touch me,” she said. “Even when I hated it. Even when it made me feel sick.” Her hands twisted together in her lap. “After a while I stopped knowing whether I was choosing it or just… yielding.”
She swallowed.
“And now I don’t know what will happen if someone touches me again. I want you to,” she added quickly, the confession burning on her tongue. “What if my body remembers him instead? What if it feels wrong and I can’t bear it?”
For a long moment, Cormac said nothing.
He held out his hand.
“There’s only one way to find out,” he said gently.
Aoife stared at it.
Her heart was beating so hard it pulsed in her throat. For a moment she was certain she wouldn’t be able to move at all.
Slowly, she placed her hand in his.
