Chapter 26 #4
He opened his eyes, and the playful light in them was replaced by a deep, solemn gray. "I had a talk with the Guardian," he said softly, his fingers tracing patterns on her back. "Folding space goes away, telepathy goes away, once we give up the keyholder slots."
Lechuza stilled, the news settling over her like a cool blanket. "I guessed," she admitted quietly. "But the connection?"
"The brotherhood returns to what it has always been, Lechuza," he said, his voice firm with conviction. "That will never change. In time this will all fade."
He paused, letting the words hang between them. "Not us, Jae,” she whispered.
He kissed her then, a slow, deliberate press of his lips that was more a promise than passion. It was a sealing of a pact, a quiet acknowledgment of the one thing that would remain. "No. Not us," he echoed against her mouth. "We will always be able to just sense whatever the other is feeling."
"Okay, now what?" she asked, pulling back just enough to look at him, her fingers tracing the line of his jaw.
"In terms of living a fucking normal life?" he asked, a wry smile touching his lips.
"Yeah, that."
"What happened with Silas?"
"He's on board, talked to the Guardian. He's sending them an emissary," she sighed, resting her forehead against his. "I don't envy him that job. The guy sounds like he's going to be…difficult. As for my job, I get it back."
"Okay, home base, Virginia Beach, then," he said, his arms tightening around her. "I have to warn you, my apartment pales to this estate."
"Babe, I can build you a castle," she said, a playful seriousness in her tone. "I have the resources to give you anything."
"Killa, all I want is you," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "Everything else is just gravy."
"I love you, Jae," she breathed, the words feeling truer than anything she had ever said. "Through any lifetime you want to drag me. Through all the ups and downs. Now that I found you, my life is complete."
"I had to die to learn who I was," he said, his voice raw. "To learn that you’re the only woman I have ever loved, through wars, through genocide, through magic and mayhem, quests and animal transformations. I love who you are, who I am, and who we are together."
She kissed him then, desperate for his mouth, the weight of him, the heat of his skin.
It was a hungry, consuming one, a clash of lips and teeth that spoke of all the time they had lost and all the time they were determined to claim.
His hands tangled in her hair, holding her to him as if he were afraid she might disappear.
The world outside the room, the war, the responsibilities, all of it melted away until there was only the feel of his body against hers, the frantic beat of his heart matching her own.
When they finally surfaced, gasping for air, she looked at him, and he narrowed his eyes, a knowing smirk on his lips.
"What's going on in that brain?" he asked, his thumb stroking her cheek.
"Before we get our folded space privileges revoked," she said, a mischievous lilt in her voice, "how about we go someplace tropical. My dad has an island retreat, and there will be nothing there except you, me, endless turquoise water, sun, and sand."
"And the possibilities?" he asked, his voice dropping to a low, seductive hum.
"Just as endless." She didn't want to think it, but she did. Thanks to Chaos.
"I’m so glad you're such a bad girl."
"Oh, wait until we get there," she purred, leaning in to nip at his lower lip. "I'll show you how bad I can be."
His laughter was a low, warm vibration against her lips, a sound she felt in her very bones.
He rolled them, pinning her beneath him with a gentle weight that felt more like an anchor than a restraint.
His eyes, the color of a mist-gray sky, searched hers, and in their depths, she saw the echo of a thousand lifetimes.
"You know," he murmured, his voice a soft caress, "I used to think we were cursed. That we were just two souls, doomed to find each other and lose each other, over and over."
She reached up, her fingers tracing the line of his brow, the stubborn set of his jaw. "Maybe we're not cursed," she whispered, the realization dawning with the clarity of a sunrise. "Maybe love never dies. It just...finds you. Again and again."
A slow, beautiful smile spread across his face. "Yeah?"
"Yeah," she confirmed, a profound sense of peace settling over her, a feeling more powerful than any magic she had ever wielded.
"That's just fine with me. I will love Jae Shaw.
I will love Francisco del Castillo. I will love the eagle, or the man, or any form you decide to take.
" She paused, a wicked glint returning to her eyes.
"I'd even love you if you were a freaking mushroom. "
His laughter burst forth then, loud and uninhibited, filling the room with a joy so pure it almost hurt. "A mushroom? Really?"
"Especially a mushroom," she insisted, pulling him down for another kiss, sealing their ridiculous, wonderful, eternal truth. "As long as it's you.”