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“I love you. Forever.” Skye’s words went beyond his heart. They went to the core of him, to who he was. To who he was now, because of her. She really did make him better. Her arms twined around his neck, pulling him close.
“Skye, I love you,” he whispered against her cheek, her ear, his arms closing around her small frame. “Forever. My darling. Forever.”
One last fierce kiss, then they drew apart, their eyes locked on each other.
The sea around them was pewter under the low cloud. The sinking tide washed around his hips and lapped Skye’s waist. He took a deep breath of the cold sea air, saw Skye do the same. Then he closed his eyes, reaching out for the threads that bound his clan to him. Thea had torn them away, but he was Keeper. They were joined.
Whatever hand had steered this into being, his power had been at the heart of it.
He was the source his people drew the stolen lives from, eked out over this eternity. However he looked at it, this was on him. There was no way to make amends, or fix past wrongs. If there was a way to make it right from here, that was on him too.
But he couldn’t just surrender his people to death. If Skye’s theory was right, he wouldn’t.
He could feel them all, connected to him. He gathered the threads of that connection into his heart, holding them close. He reached deep within, to the power inside, and to the energy, the magic that made them one with the sea, that made them Nemaro. Then he opened his eyes.
Skye was waiting, watching for his lead. At his nod she closed her eyes. He felt the soft touch of her presence inside him. Her soft words were just a murmur above the waves, as she spoke directly to the stolen souls hidden deep within Hunter.
“Thank you for sharing your life force. Thank you for keeping us alive.”
He felt her words inside him; felt the ancient souls awaken.
“Thank you. We are sorry you were taken from your bodies. We are sorry you can’t return to them.”
Inside him he felt them stir. Shifting, moving. Roiling.
“You can’t return. But you don’t have to stay.”
Seething. Rising.
“You can go on. Or you can remain. Follow the threads you sustain and become part of the Nemaro if you want to. Leave us and be part of the elements of this world if you want to. Or leave this world and go on.”
Fear. Hope. Longing. Pressing against his surface. Straining.
“You choose. We release you. You are free.”
A force impossible to contain erupted from within him, throwing him into the air, ricocheting through the water like Lithus falling all over again. He hit the surface.
Dazed, he drifted on his back, staring up at the dark sky. From him, tiny points of light rose, slowly at first, tentative, floating gently up to hover above him as if testing freedom. Then floating, dancing, soaring, each light lifted off. Some drifted low over the crests of the waves, turning them golden for an instant before disappearing into the foam. Others followed the threads he held in his heart across the sea to where his clan drifted like him, dazed. And some lights ascended into the air, weightless stars in golden flight that lit the clouds until they vanished from sight.
Tears rolled down his cheeks, lost in the salt water of the sea. He’d not been able to sense them all those years inside him. But he’d felt them leave him. Free.
He heard movement in the water, and felt Skye’s hand on his arm. He moved himself upright to stand, unsteady, and gently laid his trembling hands on her shoulders. He felt an overwhelming sense of lightness. “It worked,” he whispered, a sob catching in his chest. “We’re still here. And they’re free. It worked.”
