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“Because I destroyed the portal.”
“What?” I sit up in bed, my lips parting.
“Back then, I didn’t want to take the risk that you would bring him back. When Lux brought back my Destruction heart, I desired to have that twin bond again. And the only way to do that would be through the necromancer.”
“Why?”
“Because I know Death holds my old heart.”
I rake my nails through my scalp, heaving gasps from my throat because I know, I know, Iknowwhat this all means! My time in the Soul Plane when their tethers united, when they battled over me, confirmed it. There’s onlyoneway he would know that.
“Restore it, Neo,” I urge him, appealing to that new heart, his better nature. “He will bring back the souls. They deserve to live again. The Scourge robbed them of their lives, and they don’t deserve it. The moment I bring Thanatos back, he will bring back the souls. You know he will.”
Neo searches my eyes, those knuckles like warm flames upon my cheek. “And whatelsewill he do?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me.”
I lower my brows in disbelief. “Why?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Not. Good. Enough.”
He kisses me, tasting the inside of my mouth as if it’s his last time—and maybe it is—then responds, “Too complicated for me to explain with the small amount of time we have left.”
“I’m so confused. Why are you afraid?” I plant a hand against his chest, fingering his wedding ring that I have hung around his neck by a thin but unbreakable Halo strand that cannot be ripped from him. “I love you, Neo. You.”
“You love him, too.”
“Again…whydoes it matter?”
“I cannot let go of my history,ourhistory, so easily, Elysia.”
“If I don’t bring him back, Neo, then the necromancer will, and that history you’ve described will be the one written into his new heart. He won’t be Natos. He will be just Death. And you will be linked again. Is that what you want?”
Grunting under his breath, Neo thuds his head back against the bed frame a few times, and it’s then that I realize itiswhat he wants. My eyes burn, and I pull away from him. Neo reaches for me, seizes my wrist, but I shake my head, glaring. His gaze softens, reminding me of snow-topped trees mantled in starlight, and he relents.
“Why should I be surprised? You two…ugh!” I throw up my hands and shrug into the chemise that his shades have preserved for me. “Of course, you don’t want me to bring him back. Of course, you’d rather it be Death. Because he won’t lovemeanymore. And you know damn well I wouldneverlove him. Even though it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t fucking matter! I love you both now!”
“Elysia…” Neo rolls out of bed and strides over to me, but I back away.
“Don’t you fucking touch me, Neo!” I point a warning finger at him.
Neo raises his hands, pausing inches before me, respecting my boundaries. Still, I recognize I’m wrestling with that scar, that sliver of darkness in his new heart. Bred from his guilt over how he treated me, fear writ into its very fabric because he knows his old heart was the first I fell in love with.
Neo drops his hands to his sides in surrender and bows his head. “You are right, Elysia.” I slowly lift my chin, melting a little, rejoicing because the rest of his heart is still strong enough to overcome that scar, that darkness. “Please forgive me, my love. I was wrong to hesitate.”
He extends his hand to me along with a raiment of flames to seduce me. Nodding, I welcome his hand, welcome him pulling me back to his fire and ice body, welcome his hands harboring my waist and hoisting me up so my legs wrap around his hips, wrinkling my chemise up to my thighs. A burst of Halo heat erupts when I realize he’s carrying me back to my inner suite so he may restore the portal!
I wind my arms around his hair, remembering how I still want to braid those strands. “Thank you, Neo!” I gush and touch my lips to each of his cheeks, to his jaw, to his chin, to his eyes, to his brow.
Neo tucks his hands right under the backs of my thighs, centers my body against his, and deadpans, “I will always be Neo from now on.”
I close my eyes, registering what he’s telling me, what he’s vowing to me. For whatever reason, I can’t help but remember what Lux said. So, I give him back his name, imagining it like a wedding gift between us. I embrace that scar, that darkness inside him. “Yourheartwill always be Neo, but there will always be a part of you that isNeoptolemus, the Prince of Destruction. And I’m strong enough for that, Neo. As long as you vow to me to never use Destruction against me, I give you my solemn vow to understand your darkness andneverto return it.” I raise my palm to his mouth, to his fang, tempting him with the promise.
Neo doesn’t hesitate to join our blood together. And I pray it wasn’t a mistake.
