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Yana. His heart’s deepest desire. The woman he would love forever. The woman he had loved for three thousand years. The woman he had lost forever.
He stumbled sideways, clutching the wall for support, all the time staring at her.
Yana. Celeste. They were the same woman. His beloved. Celeste had been Yana in a previous life.
By the love of the Great Ones, Celeste was the reason Atia had imprisoned him. Atia had loved him, but she’d known he would never return her love because of Yana, so she’d imprisoned him in her private domain. When he still didn’t love her, she’d stolen his memories of Yana and cast him into the crystal to be a slave forever—three days at a time.
Yana’s—Celeste’s—wish had brought back his memories.
He had been trapped in Atia’s prison, knowing Yana suffered a horrible existence, finally dying in misery. Atia had allowed him to watch, killing him inside. He fell to his knees and wept as the intense feelings overcame him.
For so many centuries, he had longed for something beyond his comprehension—yearned for it with a dire desperation—but he had not known what it was. He had been left a hollow shell, empty of feeling. Hatred and anger filled that hole, directed toward Atia.
Those feelings had softened when he met Celeste, and he hadn’t understood why. They had been a part of him for so long. He hadn’t remembered her, yet his soul knew her. His body knew her. Atia hadn’t been able to totally steal her away from him.
Tears streamed from his face, cradled in his hands, as the flood of emotions swept through him. He had lost so much, and he still stood to lose so much. Two more days was all he had with her. How would he survive eternity without her? Now that he remembered her, his imprisonment would be unbearable. His heart would surely collapse.
Yet he would never willingly give up the memory of her.
Soft fingers stroked through his hair. He opened his eyes as Celeste sank before him, tears streaming from her eyes, too.
“Zurvan?” Fear colored her watery eyes. She stroked his cheek, her delicate touch threading through him.
“The wish. It worked, I think.” She sucked in a breath. “You’re the one I love, but if you don’t love me….”
The vulnerability in her eyes, the vivid pain coloring those beautiful rippling pools of life, tore his heart in two. He tugged her into his arms and held her. Tight. Close to his heart. Their heartbeats in sync.
Ah, Great Ones, but he loved her. His heart ached with it.
“I do love you, Celeste. With all my heart.”
He eased her back, capturing her gaze and holding it steady.
“Believe me.” He kissed her. Ferocious. Passionate. Loving.
She stared at him, as though not daring to believe.
“For a minute I thought….” Her gaze dropped from his.
He cupped her sweet face in his hands and lifted it until their gazes locked.
“You thought I would reject you.”
She nodded.
“I would never reject you. I love you more than life itself.”
“Me, too. Oh, God, Zurvan. It’s so strong it hurts.”
He stroked her hair. “I don’t want to hurt you, Celeste. Ever.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t mean that. It’s just that it’s so powerful. I’m just afraid it’s not real.”
He dragged her into another kiss. Sparks flared through them both.
* * *
Celeste had been terrified when she saw Zurvan fall to his knees, consumed by wracking sobs. After the intense feelings of love, and the absolute belief that love was real, seeing him respond that way had shaken her to the foundation of her being, certain it had all been a cosmic joke on her and love really was as elusive as she’d always feared.
