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I find her hands and draw her close, tilting my head toward hers. “What? I’m being considerate.” Our lips brush as I add in a murmur, “Not inappropriate.”
She rolls her eyes, but her cheeks flush more anyway. “You’re always inappr—”
I cut her off with another kiss, dropping her hands to scoop her up. With a shriek, she interlaces her fingers behind my neck and leans back, letting me spin her around. The mist surely dampens her hair and the borrowed dress, but she doesn’t protest anymore, just relaxes against my grasp and tilts her face toward the stars.
I stop well before either of us can get dizzy and let her slide down until her feet touch the ground. The instant she’s standing, she wraps her arms around me and buries her face against my chest. I embrace her in return, squeezing until she squeaks and giggles.
In a gentle rush, her demeanor grows solemn. She shifts back, wrapping her hands around my wrists. My bloodstained wrists that bear more than just guilt now.
“I said the same in my letters,” she says.
“What’s that?”
Her eyes sparkle, though the seriousness remains. “You know.”
“What do I know?”
She flashes me a playful scowl and lets go of one wrist to touch my cheek. “That I love you. And I never stopped.”
Everything in me screams to kiss her again. To whisk her away from here. But I know better than to tempt myself right now. So instead, I take her hand in mine, kiss the back of it, and draw her with me toward the nearest bench.
We sit in silence and lean back in the stone seat. Night noises envelop us. The fountains’ gentle burbling rings like a lullaby. Alia ruffles her dress, then slides off her shoes and tucks her knees up against her chest. In nearly the same breath, she curls herself against me, shuffling her way under my arm.
I kiss her hair and pull her in tight.
After a moment, her whisper floats on the soft breeze. “Kirran?”
“Hmm?”
She withdraws enough to look at me. “I’m glad you’re back.”
I lean forward until our foreheads touch. Our eyes close in unison. “So am I.”
For longer than I know, we sit there like that, hands clasped, leaning on each other.
Whatever the next days bring, whatever threats rise against us, whatever conspiracies our investigation unearths, we’ll face it head on. And we’ll continue healing.
Together.
