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He nodded, his throat bobbing. My heart ached. "All our family, our friends—there's no one left."
"There might be someone," I said gently. "But the chances are low. Tali's still around, but you never met her."
"Tali's the panda that wanted to eat us?" he clarified.
I groaned. "She could have made a better impression. I swear, she's normally friendly and she never bites."6
"She threatened to bite our hands off."
"Oh good, you understood that part."
He laughed, but his expression sobered way too quickly. I ran my hands down his neck to his shoulders, stroking where he was taut with stress.
"Em, your mum and dad—"
"Gone," he cut in, a hand wandering from my waist to my forearm. "And unless we figure out how to stop this curse on us, I'm going to lose everyone who's left."
"Someone, somewhere can read this curse," I tried to reassure him. "We just need to find them. As soon as everyone's eaten, we'll go back to Hell and—"
"Cronus will put a target on our backs," Em finished tiredly.
He was right, and I hated it.
"We can't sit here and wait to kill each other," I said, as gently as I was able. "I won't let you lose me, Em."
And the thought of losinghim,and of dying again, scared the shit out of me. Ashboren said young demons weren't studying curses anymore, so we needed someone old. Ancient even.
"I can't stand being away from you," Em blurted, his fingers wrapping around my forearm, right over the skulls and flowers disguising the curse mark. "I can't settle when you're out of my sight. I—I'm petrified something bad will happen to you, that Cronus will come and steal you from me the second I’m not there."
Oh, Em…
I hugged him close, pressing a kiss to his soft, salt-and-pepper hair and holding him for long, long moments.
Em didn't break down in tears, didn't even shake, but I felt the turmoil crash through his soul, powerful enough to break through the ironclad walls he kept between me and his emotions.
"We'll break these curses, come back to this safe house, and live happily ever after while someone else kills Cronus. He's fucking with all the wrong people—he stole Poseidon's hippocampi, and gods know who else he's pissed off. Let someone else kill him."
Emlyn trailed a fingertip from the top of my spine to the bottom. Following the prophecy inked on me. My heart seized.
"I'm choosing to be delusional," I informed him.
Prophecy? What prophecy?
"Delusional sounds good," he agreed, as if there weren't a thousand plans and backup plans and yet more emergency plans spinning around his clever mind. "But if we can't stop this—"
"We can," I argued, kissing him.
Emlyn's throat bobbed. He met my gaze, sombre and sweet. "I'd rather live four short weeks with you than any lifetime without you."
I blinked fast, my throat closing up. "Me, too," I croaked.
I rested my head on his shoulder, our arms around each other as another ominous thud came from above us.
"If those fuckers are doing the whirling tornado, I'm going to neuter both of them."
Emlyn's laugh ruffled my hair. "I bet they've intended something even worse."
I groaned. "Don't."
