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“It took a while and a fair few mistakes, but I try.” Standing stiffly, I smoothed down my dress and glanced at the garden drenched in colours of dawn. The sand twinkled with rubies; the waves glittered with sapphires.
My time on land had come to an end, and the sea was calling me home.
“Gather your things. I’ll walk you out.” I smiled to take the sting out of my order to go. “I’m truly ever so grateful you spent so much of your time with me. I’m aware of how precious every moment is, and it’s an honour to have claimed so many of yours.”
“Not at all.” Dylan stood and packed away his microphone, pens, cords, notebooks, and devices. “It was our pleasure.”
“Yes.” Margot stood and slung her satchel over her shoulder. “I’ve loved every moment of it. Even when you were deliberately ripping out my heart.”
I smiled. “I’m glad. I’m happy to have shared it with you. Hopefully, your readers will like it.”
“I’m sure they will.” Dylan swiped a hand through his manicured beard. “To have a tell-all tale by Nerida Avci herself will bring the science world to its knees.”
I went to reply, but Margot interrupted, “But what about the other scientific discovery you made? Did that get filed in science or spirituality?”
“I don’t follow.” I scowled. “Lunamare is my life’s work. I never—”
“Your heart journal. The moments you felt Aslan when he was being electrocuted.”
“Ah, that.” I clasped my hands and walked toward the main lounge and the open foyer beyond. The reporters followed me in a sleepy shuffle. “If you truly want to know, research my legally married name of Nerida Kara. You’ll find a paper called ‘The Study of Soulmates and Proof They Do Exist.’”
“So your palpitations did line up with Aslan’s?”
“They did.”
“That’s...that’s...” Margot shook her head as I slowed and opened the front door. “That blows my mind. Did you ever get tested for psychic abilities? Did you train your intuition?”
“That’s a tale for another day.” I sighed. “Let’s just say, I’ve been blessed with a sensitivity not unlike Aslan’s. His is physical. Mine is spiritual. We both learned to live with our gifts the best we could.”
Tiffany had gone to bed. Teddy, Eddie, Ayla, Harry, and the grandkids were all snoozing.
I wanted to be gone before they woke.
“Thank you again,” I said quietly, glancing into the forecourt with its seahorse fountain and the two cars the reporters had driven. “Safe journey home.”
Dylan spun around on my sweeping sandstone stoop. “Oh, will you be around in the next few days to ask any follow-up questions?”
I held his stare.
I resisted the urge to shake my head.
Instead, I smiled at both of them, stepped back into my home, and said, “Goodbye.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
*
Aslan
*
(Heart in Korean: Ma-eum)
I SENSED HER COMING.
I supposed, after living with her for so long, her little knowings had finally rubbed off on me. There wasn’t a moment that I wasn’t aware of her, in-sync with her, in awe of her.
She still helped Teddy and Eddie oversee their hordes of managers and hundreds of staff for Lunamare. She still went on podcasts promoting the need for action to protect our seas and creatures. She was tireless and wonderful, and it kept me up at night that a woman such as her—a woman with so much life that she could last centuries—had shackled herself to a man like me.
I was one month away from celebrating my seventy-seventh birthday. By most counts, I was still a youngish man. I’d lived through things most people couldn’t dream of and existed in a state of happiness that not many were privileged to find.
Yet...I was getting tired.
It wasn’t every day, and it wasn’t all the time, but the ache in my chest had become a constant companion. A companion Neri could feel.
I’d never willingly lied to her, but now...it was physically impossible.
She knew.
She always damn well knew.
And she knew that my latest heart attack—another mild one but not mild enough to keep me out of the hospital for a few days—was increasing the speed on the ticking bomb in my chest.
Eventually, it would stop, and I honestly couldn’t stomach the thought of it happening when I was holding one of my granddaughters or making passionate love to my wife.
I didn’t want to go out on my heart’s terms.
I didn’t want to suffer another stroke and lose the ability of words and numbers.
After everything Cem had done to me, that had been the worst.
A living fucking nightmare being trapped in my body and housed in a mind that no longer worked the way it should.
It could happen again.
One day, I could see rainbows in my head while helping Bella with her math homework, and the next, I could be a fucking vegetable.
To think of Neri having to care for me?
To think of my family seeing me that way?
