Chapter Forty-Seven Pax #2
She gently brushed her fingertips over the wound on my chest. A gash that had clotted over, the jagged seam sealing with the belief she, Timothy, and Dani had poured into me.
I took her hand and led her into the bathroom, and I turned on the shower. It took only a second for it to heat, and the second it was warm enough, I stepped in and helped her inside.
We stood beneath the spray as hot water pelted us from above, our arms wrapped fiercely around each other, holding the other up.
And Aria sobbed.
Sobbed and sobbed.
While I ran my fingers through the knots in her hair, whispering against the crown of her head, “I know, baby, I know. It’s okay. It’s over now. It’s over.”
When the tears finally subsided, I washed her hair, fingers massaging through the locks before I lathered a washcloth and ran it over every inch of her gorgeous body.
Over the scars and the curves and the history that had been written on her.
Did my best to remove any visible traces of the traumas we had endured, though I knew the true scars could never fully be erased.
Then, with trembling hands, she did the same for me.
Once we were both clean, I turned off the faucet, grabbed a towel, and wrapped her in it; then I stepped out so I could pull her to me. Lifting her off her feet.
Lush locks of black curled around her shoulders and chest, sticking to her damp skin, while the slender arms that were the strongest I’d ever encountered were locked around my neck.
I’d once thought her too thin and frail, as if the life we’d led had whittled her down to skin and bone.
But no.
She was fierce.
Formidable.
The strength the world had been waiting for.
I dragged down the covers on the bed, then laid her down in the middle of it before I climbed in beside her. I propped myself up on an elbow and took her hand with the other and splayed it over the thunder that ravaged in my chest.
A ravaging that beat because of her belief.
“You saved me, Aria.”
She blinked up at me. That gaze an endless well of sincerity.
“And you saved me,” she murmured.
I moved her hand, shifting so I could link our fingers together and lift them between us, scattering kisses over her knuckles as I whispered, “I guess we saved each other.”
“I think that’s exactly what we were meant to do. What we were all meant to do.”
“Yeah. I think you’re right.”
She fought the moisture that resurfaced in her eyes. “We lost so many.”
“I know.” The words were gravel. “But you have to think of the multitudes that were saved.”
Aria wavered, her throat bobbing, emotion thickening her voice. “Is it really over?”
I ran a thumb down her cheek. “I have to believe that it’s over. Have to believe we’re free, Aria. You’re free.”
Her lips trembled, giving way to a sorrowful, soggy smile that was still wrought with joy. She released my hand so she could trace her fingertips over the edges of my face.
“I was so scared.” Her confession was choppy. “When I thought I lost you.”
I ran the pad of my thumb over the scar on the left side of her mouth. “I don’t think I could have gone anywhere without you.”
“But it seems so unfair. For Josephine and Ellis. I wanted . . .” She trailed off, unsure of how to phrase it.
“We all did, but we can’t know all things. We can’t know the full purpose of Ellis’s path. Of his journey. But the one thing I do know is he would have been proud to have given his life like this.”
Silence covered us for a few moments as we grieved for the man who’d meant so much to us.
Then Aria blinked, her hair swishing over the pillow as she gazed over at me. “What do we do now? Will there still be Kruen to fight?”
“That, I don’t know, Aria. Not until we sleep.
But what I do know . . . ?” Shifting, I rolled on top of her.
The thin towel was the only thing that separated us.
I brushed back the pieces of hair clinging to her face, voice low with devotion when I said, “I’m going to keep every promise I’ve made you.
I’m going to give you all the good things in life.
The love and peace you deserve. A home.” I glanced away for a beat before I returned my gaze to her. “A family.”
Affection billowed through her features, and she reached up again, this time brushing her fingertips over my lips. “Together.”
“Always, always together.” I let a slight smile take to my mouth. “You just have to decide where that’s going to be. I’m guessing some deserted island where you can bury your toes in the sand.”
Joy swept through her expression, this lightness we found once we realized the chains that had bound us had been released.
The fear that she would be running forever.
That there would be nowhere to hide.
That one day her calling would catch up to her and bring her to her end.
But she had prevailed.
She had the power, just like she was promised.
“Well, a deserted island does sound pretty nice, but maybe only part-time.”
My grin grew. “Ah, yeah, that’s right. My princess needs two houses.”
Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, her neck and cheeks flushed with the blood that rushed through her veins. “Princess. Nol. Wife. Whatever you want to call me.”
She hiked a playful shoulder.
Sincerity took over when I murmured down at her, “What you are is my everything.”
And there was no teasing after that. There were only impassioned kisses and searching hands and healed hearts.
Writhing bodies and sweat-slicked skin.
There was only us.
Together.
Forever, in every way, no matter what that looked like.