Chapter 43
Raoul rowed for what seemed like hours.
We went down so many waterways, turning and turning again, that I began to fear we’d never make it out of the opera basements alive. We would be stuck forever in the labyrinthian maze only Erik knew how to escape from.
We didn’t speak, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
Raoul looked like a shell of himself, utterly wrung out and on the verge of collapse, but he kept rowing, carefully navigating us through the darkness, bringing us—I hoped—back to the light.
Then, slowly, by almost imperceptible degrees, the black around us began to brighten, warming into shades of gray, then white, then the peachy pink of a new sunrise.
Morning had come. The night had not lasted.
Raoul stopped the skiff before another portcullis, this one a gate to the outside world. Beyond its iron bars was the Rue Scribe. It was quiet and still, the city not yet ready to wake and stir.
Neither of us made a move to leave the boat. We only stared at one another, unsure of what to do next, unsure of how to begin the next chapter.
After a moment of pained silence, Raoul reached into his pocket and withdrew a sparkling bauble. It was his ring, still looped upon the broken necklace I’d worn to hide it. I hadn’t seen it since New Year’s, at the masquerade.
“Where did you find it?” I gasped. We both noticed I made no motion to claim it.
“It was in one of the tunnels. He must have dropped it. Or thrown it away.” Raoul raked a hand through his hair, looking so raw and vulnerable. “Christine, if you…if you don’t want it anymore, I’ll understand.”
Sunlight played on the water below us, casting illuminated rainbows across his face.
His familiar and beloved face.
He was exhausted and no longer looking like a boy in the throes of his first love. He was a man, ready to begin a life with that love. If only she’d accept…
“Back there, I only…” I paused, sorting through the words that would save him, that would save us.
Because even after everything that had happened—my choosing Erik, my kissing him—I still wanted Raoul and I to have an us.
“I couldn’t…I couldn’t imagine a world without you in it.
I had to make him free you. I needed you to—”
He stopped me short, his face racked with unchecked emotion.
“You don’t have to explain, Christine. I know I’ll never fully understand what happened between you two.
I’ll never understand the intricacies of your relationship.
I’ll never know, not truly, and I…I don’t need to.
But with it now over…if it’s all well and truly over…
” He made a sound of frustration. “I suppose that’s the question, isn’t it?
I mean, I know it is. Over. For me. But…
is it for you? Is that…is all that…” Raoul gestured back in the direction we’d come from. “Over?”
I nodded miserably.
His eyes drifted from mine, looking so terribly lost. “Then…then let it be done. The past can remain in the past. All I care about is our today. Our tomorrows.” He sighed.
“I love you, Christine. I’ve always loved you.
And I always will. I want to be with you, always.
In your days, your nights, your mornings. ”
I reached out and cupped his sun-dappled cheek. “I want that too.”
For the first time in a very long while, hope stirred in Raoul’s eyes. “You do?”
I nodded and held out my hand. He slid the ring off the necklace and cast the broken chain into the water. It disappeared through the murky depths with one final flash of silver.
When the ring was restored, returned to my left hand with its dazzling weight, Raoul kissed me, softly, gently. It was a new promise, a new start, and I was happy to accept it.
I wanted to leave the shadows behind. I yearned to live in the light.
Raoul climbed out of the skiff and, steadying it, helped me up onto the stone platform.
“I’m not entirely sure how to get us out of here,” he admitted, nodding to the strange liminal space we found ourselves in. He let out a laugh that sounded more worried than mirthful.
“That’s all right,” I said, wrapping my hand around his and willing him to feel all the love my heart held for him. “Just choose a path and I will follow you.”