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“Skye...” Emotion constricted his throat. “you know me?”
“Of course I know you,” her effort at humour was tremulous but her smile dazzled him.
His vision blurred for an instant, and he blinked to not lose a second of her. Her blazing joy softened, and she placed gentle hands against his cheeks, “I’m so sorry for forgetting you and... I didn’t mean to. I don’t know why...” Her smile wavered. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I remember now.”
He was in her eyes as if he’d never left them. She was herself, whole. No part of her missing. Not even him. Especially not him. He pressed his hands over hers, tighter against his cheeks. “It wasn’t your fault. Mine, yet again. It’s what I do. Hurt you.”
She pulled her hands away and drew back, her expression fierce. “Don’t say that, or even think it. Ever. You not in my life would hurt me more. It would be just – just – so don’t. Okay?”
He smiled, lifting his arms to her shoulders and crossing his wrists behind her. “If you say so.”
Her glare vanished, her arms slipping around his waist. “I do,” she murmured. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Her eyes were sunlight striking through water. He could swim there forever.
“Hunter? When I forgot you and what we shared, I think I still knew you, even when I didn’t. How could I not? You’re in my heart.”
Skye. He lowered his lips to hers, tracing the shape of them, the silk of them, hoping he was telling her everything that words couldn’t. Lifting his head, he searched her eyes, to be sure he was still there, and when her joyful laughter spilled out, he laughed too. He closed his arms around her slight frame, holding her close, her love anchoring him, making him real. The miracle of her loving him again – of her loving him at all – was too much.
But when the increasing heat of her touch registered through the overwhelming whirl of Skye, he had to pull away. He was still nothing but dangerous to her, his touch a threat to her very life. He tried to hide the pain the knowledge caused him as he gently extricated himself from her embrace. Her sobering expression told him she understood.
“I wish we could be free of...of this,” she gestured helplessly at the space between them, and stared at her outstretched hands as if they were entirely to blame.
He touched his palms briefly to hers. “Me too,” his voice was hoarse with emotion. “Sometimes I think I’ll go mad if I have to keep paying and paying for what my father and the other Seers did. Will it ever be over?”
He turned from her sad gaze to stare at the crinkled surface of the ocean falling into shadow. “I didn’t escape. All I did was change location and make everything worse. I’ve been thinking and thinking. Wishing...”
He turned to her again, “The curse is beyond any of us. We’re trapped whatever way we choose. But I keep imagining if the curse was broken...”
“If it was broken...?” Skye encouraged.
“We could be...us. Free. Together.”
“Free,” she whispered. “Together.”
