AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I never forgot," he croaked, his voice broken and weak, barely audible. "I never forgot your name."
"Shit, Wane," Kai breathed, something vast and unnameable touching my soul as he took a faltering step forward. "You did this toyourself?"
Wane lifted his dark head off my shoulder, his eyes filling with more tears at the sight of Kai and Emlyn.
"I couldn't forget," he said, thick with emotion. "He wanted to take her name from me. He—he took—everything else. I’m so sorry, I tried to fight him."
Everything else. Not my name, but Kai's? Em's? Harvey's?
Oh, god, had he forgotten—
"So that's my name," he breathed, so quiet and husky. "Wane. I—I remember it now."
He smiled. He was tortured and bleeding, mutilated all over his body, his wings and horns cut off—and hesmiled."Thank you."
"Malakai," Kai blurted before Wane had to ask. "But since you're a good looking bastard, you can call me Kai."
Wane laughed, soft and whispery, and I cried harder, a sob brushing my throat.
"I'm okay," Wane promised, stroking my back like I was the one who'd been locked up and tortured for a century. "I'm okay now."
I needed to let go of him so we could get out of this place, but I couldn't make my arms release him. I couldn't stop touching him ever. But—
"Shit," I breathed, my stomach in knots. "Sorry, that's way too long to be touching you."
Wane swallowed, and I tracked the movement, my eyes glued to the white scars on his throat. They were jagged in places, looping in others, and they almost looked like—words. When I tried to move back, forcing my arms to relax around him, Wane's bronze hand shut out and grabbed my arm.
"Don't," he gasped, panic slicing through my chest hard enough to make my breath hitch. "Don't."
The writing was bigger on his arm, deep enough for me to make out a H, an A, an L—
Oh, gods. I covered my mouth with one hand, dragging him back into a shaking hug with my other.
He wanted to take her name from me.
He'd cut my name into his skin over and over. There wasn't a single part of him that wasn't marked by me. So he could never forget my name.
I trembled violently, teeth chattering as I held him, my eyes oozing trails of lava down my cheeks. "I love you, zivai. I love you so, so much."
"There's—there's a word I call you," he rasped, anger flashing through his soul, as bright as a forming star, not a single wall hiding his emotions from me. Like someone had brutally and meticulously stripped him of every shield. "A name."
"Itzaia," I breathed, stroking his matted hair and trying futilely to stop my tears. "You call me itzaia."
"Itzaia," he echoed, shuddering against me. "My soul."
"And you're my heart."
"We should go," Emlyn murmured in his softest voice, making Wane jump. "Emlyn," he said when Wane blinked at him, tears on his long lashes. "I'm Emlyn, and—fuck." Seeing my gentle giant collapse had my heart crushing into a tiny ball. "I really missed you, Wane."
Wane gripped me tighter. "I missed you. All of you. I never forgotyou,only your names. He could never take you from me."
Harvey whined again, and I nearly bucked under the weight of his pain. I sent him enough love to drown it out, at least for a moment.
"Harvey is—" I began, stroking Wane's back, my voice choked as I looked between the brothers. "He's a little furrier right now. Still a total badass, though. And I know he missed you like hell. Helovesyou like hell."
Harvey whined louder, getting carefully to his feet—so he didn't spook Wane, I realised. What happened before we got here?
Wane inhaled a sharp breath and exhaled it as a sob, stumbling out of my arms and into the tunnel. I let him go, wrapping my arms around myself, my chest threatening to collapse under the pain pressing on it. Kai and Em rushed in, shoring me up as I fell apart. Could they feel me now? Did they know how broken I was, deep down in my soul? Seeing what Wane had been through, where he'd lived, what he'd done to himself—I couldn't stand it.
