Chapter 46
YELENA
The world is utterly still by the time he finishes telling me the story of watching me break. For a moment, I don’t know what to say.
The night he saw me on this very roof was right after what happened with Kyle. I thought I was broken beyond repair and that the only way out of the absolute misery I felt was to jump and make it all go away.
But on that ledge I realized I wasn’t ready to leave all the good in my life to get away from the bad. A strength I’d never known before surged inside me, and instead of jumping I screamed out my rage and my fury at the city below.
And that’s the moment he first saw me and never stopped.
When he’s done telling me the whole story, I start to cry.
“Baby.” His voice is low. His thumb catches a tear before it reaches my jaw.
“I’m not sad,” I whisper. “I just—”
“I know.”
He does know, on a cellular level. That's the thing about him that I've slowly, at times reluctantly, admitted to myself.
He always knows.
He’s always there.
And as much as I want to feel betrayed by that, I'm not. It’s the opposite.
“I crossed every line,” he murmurs.
His eyes are locked on mine with an intensity that would have terrified me once but now just anchors me.
"I took apart your life piece by piece and rebuilt the whole thing so that every path led back to me.”
There’s no regret in his tone at all.
I love that.
“I would do every single thing again, baby. Every ruthless, calculating, unforgivable thing. Because the alternative is a world where you're not mine, and I don't even know how to want that world.”
The wind whips around us as our eyes lock.
“But now…” His hands come up to cradle my face with a gentleness that will always undo me when it comes from him. “No more games. No more game-plays I've already mapped out.”
His brows knit.
“…Well, mostly not.”
I bite back a laugh.
“The simple truth is, I’m in love with you.”
I inhale sharply as his words swirl around me.
“And I have been every fucking minute of every fucking day since the moment I saw you standing on that roof, defying the whole goddamn world.” His throat works. “But again, I’m going to give you the choice now I never gave you before.”
He steps back slightly, just enough to make my heart twist at the distance.
“Stay,” he murmurs. “Or go. Your choice.”
The city hums below us. The wind sends dark tendrils of my hair across my eyes as my gaze locks with his.
I think about the girl who came up here that night, shaking and shattered, certain that she was forever damaged.
Certain that the darkness she carried hidden inside would drive away every person who ever got close enough to see it.
The girl who screamed into the void because there was no one to scream at.
Except that girl had no idea someone was already listening.
Someone was already seeing her in a way that nobody else did.
And he’s never stopped listening, and never stopped seeing me for all that I am.
Achilles saw me at the lowest, worst point of my life, and fell in love with me.
“You’re wrong about never having given me a choice,” I say, slowly shaking my head. “You did, that first night at the party. You gave me a way out—”
“I gave you a one-way exit—”
“No, you made me commit to facing my fears and staring down my insecurities,” I murmur.
Achilles’ jaw clenches when I take a step toward him, erasing the distance he just put between us.
“You did give me a way out,” I breathe. “But you also gave me every reason not to use it. How could I ever be mad at you for that?”
I stop right in front of him and look up into his dark devil eyes.
“I choose you."
My voice doesn't waver.
"I choose us."
I step back into his warmth, my hands fisting the front of his shirt. "Whatever your methods, I fell in love with you.”
His face breaks as his mask completely falls away. But there’s no monster underneath it. No villain, or devil, or—okay, there’s a little bit of devil. But that’s one of the reasons I love him.
The darkness under the gold.
The grime beneath the glitter.
What I see when that mask slips away doesn't scare me.
Because it’s him.
"I love you," I say again, because it feels worth repeating until it fills every corner of the space between us.
“And I love you, so fucking much,” he groans as his hands cup my face.
Then his mouth is on mine, kissing me the way he does everything.
Like the outcome was never in question.
Like his right to me is so certain that the universe itself has to accept it as fact.
Like he already knows how it ends.
And this time, I do too.
The answer is…never.