AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘It won’t take long, I promise.’ Without hesitation, she crossed the space between them and came right up to him, her dark eyes shining. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said softly. ‘I’m sorry I told you that I loved you and then let you go.’
He felt something inside him lurch, as if he’d missed a step going up the stairs. ‘What?’ he asked, not understanding.
Strangely, her mouth curved in a warm, almost tender smile that felt like it set something ablaze inside him. ‘I let you go, Castor. I let you walk away from me without a fight. And I...I shouldn’t have.’
She still made no sense to him. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You know this can’t happen between us. I thought I made myself clear.’
‘Oh, you did. Very clear. But I’m sorry, if you think you’re getting rid of me that easily, you’re mistaken.’ She lifted a hand and touched the side of his face, her fingertips brushing his skin like falling sparks. ‘I know what your mission means to you and I would never ask you to give it up. I would never ask you to choose. But I want you to know that the one thing I’m never giving up is loving you.’ Her fingertips brushed the line of his jaw, so softly, so gently. ‘I let you go, because I was afraid to fight for you, afraid because I thought I wasn’t good enough for you. Afraid of being a burden the way I was for Annabel.’
He couldn’t move. Her touch held him frozen the way her touch always had. Made his breath catch and the heart he was so sure was dead and gone race.
‘But I’m not afraid any more, Castor.’ Her gaze was black velvet, soft and deep. ‘Love doesn’t run away from a fight. It doesn’t avoid confrontation. It doesn’t break when things get hard either, and it was Annabel who showed me that.’ Her fingertips brushed his lower lip. ‘And you showed me that too.’
‘Me?’ His voice didn’t even sound like his, so rough and guttural.
‘Yes.’ Her smile deepened. ‘Annabel loved me, that’s why she cared for me, even when things were hard, and that’s what you’re doing too. You loved Ismena. You didn’t run away when things were hard, and you didn’t break when you couldn’t find her. You dug in and stayed strong and continued your mission. For her.’
‘Glory—’
Her fingertips gently pressed his mouth, silencing him. ‘I’m not here to demand things. I just came here to tell you that if you feel the need to keep walking this path, you won’t be walking it alone. You’ll always have someone in this world who loves you and who’ll always be with you, even if the only way you’ll allow them to be is in spirit.’
There were tears in her luminous eyes and as he watched, they spilled over and down her cheeks, but she was still smiling. Smiling at him.
Then she went up on her toes and pressed her mouth to his and before he could stop her, she’d let him go and stepped back, taking her warmth and her bright light with her.
‘Goodbye, love,’ she said softly.
And then she began to turn and walk away.
And with each step she took, he felt the pain inside him grow.
You will always have her, but she will never have you. Because you won’t let her. Coward.
How could he give himself to her though? He’d dedicated his life to his sister and the justice she needed, and that would always come first.
No matter what he wanted.
She was nearly at the door now, her hand reaching for the handle.
‘Your sister would forgive you. And she wouldn’t want you punishing yourself. It would have broken her heart if she knew you’d spent the last twenty years torturing yourself for something that wasn’t even your fault to begin with.’
Glory’s voice from that night in the limo rang in his head with an insistence he couldn’t avoid.
Perhaps he was punishing himself. And perhaps Ismena wouldn’t want that for him, but even so, how would that change anything? That would mean the last twenty years of his life would have been for nothing.
‘Glory,’ he said hoarsely, not even knowing he was going to speak until the words were out.
She turned, tears still streaming down her cheeks, so beautiful and bright in her red dress. His Red Riding Hood. His little fox.
‘I can’t stop.’ The words were ragged and rough and he didn’t understand why he was speaking when the quickest way to end this was to let her leave. ‘I can’t...forgive myself for that night.’
Her hand dropped from the door handle, her dark eyes full of tears and yet unflinching. ‘Ismena would.’
His sister’s name pierced him like a sword. ‘You can’t know that.’
But Glory’s expression didn’t even flicker. ‘Would you forgive her if she was you?’
The question cut through him, because he didn’t even have to think. Of course he would.
