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“This isn’t the first time I’ve been faced with the threat of death,” I reminded him. “When I was in the hospital before my diagnosis, I wasn’t sure I’d live. And when I did… I learned pretty quickly that giving up just wasn’t an option.”
“Aren’t you scared?” he wondered.
“Of course I am. Lucas, I’m terrified. But I have to believe there’s still a chance.”
He ran a hand up and down my thigh, eyes roaming by body. “Say you knew we wouldn’t win our trial. What would you do with our last night?”
I took his face in my hands and kissed him gently. “I’d kiss you a million times.”
I kissed him again, and a third time. He leaned in even closer, and we tumbled onto the bed together. He propped himself up over me, kissing my lips while he ran his hands down my sides. My heart beat wildly at every gentle caress.
I drew away from him to add, “I’d run away with you and just talk until it was all over.”
“Then why don’t we?” he asked.
I sighed. “Because there are people relying on us. What would you do?”
His eyebrows pinched together. “I don’t know. One night… it’s not enough. We have whole lives we’ve never lived, things I wanted to do with you that would take years.”
“Like what?” I wondered.
He ran a finger across my cheek. “I want to build a life with you, Nadine. I want to buy a house together and have kids. I want to invite our friends over for barbecues and séances. I want to skinny dip in Lake Santos with you—fully nude this time. I want to travel with you to other magical communities and ride dragons. I want to take you rock climbing and kayaking. I want to investigate hauntings and mysteries with you. And when we grow old, I want to sit on our front porch holding hands saying, we did it. We did everything we said we were going to do, and it was great. And when we die, I want to be the reaper leading you to the other side.”
I sighed happily. “That sounds perfect.”
“It terrifies me that the priestesses can take that away from us.” Lucas stopped dead and inhaled a sharp breath.
I stilled beneath him. “What is it?”
His jaw dropped. “I just realized something… When we were tied to that lamp post, I didn’t want to die, and I thought it was because I was scared of death, but I’m not. I’m scared of not living.”
He drew away from me and placed his hand over his mouth, like the realization was more profound than anything he’d discovered before. I sat up beside him. Of all the emotional talks Lucas and I had shared, nothing could compare to the deep emotions I witnessed flitting through him at that moment. It was like everything in his life finally made sense.
“Nadine, I want to live, so badly,” he said. “And I wasn’t living for so long. Now that I have something to live for, something to fight for—hell, something to die for—I’m terrified of losing it.”
“Then you won’t,” I told him firmly. I wasn’t sure where the words came from, because a moment ago, it would’ve felt like a lie. Now it felt like a promise. “Everything you said you wanted, we’ll have. I don’t care if it’s in this life or the next. I’ll be there with you.”
That was something I was absolutely certain of.
“I don’t want to wait any longer,” Lucas said. “I don’t care if we only have one night left. I’m going to start living now.”
He stood and drew something out of his pocket and handed it to me. I eyed the tiny wooden box curiously. It was a cube with lines carved into it in a pretty design and two pegs on top that slid panels both ways.
I got excited and bounced on the bed a little. “Oh, a puzzle box! What’s inside?”
He smirked. “That’s the surprise.”
I flipped the box around in my hands, and I didn’t see any obvious place to open it. It had to have something to do with the sliding panels, unless that was just to trick me. I wiggled the pegs and slid the panels around, but nothing happened. I poked a fingernail into the carvings, trying to see if any of them hid an opening. Lucas looked proud that I couldn’t figure it out right away, until I wiggled one of the side panels and it popped out. Once that was free, it made room for the top panel to slide off.
“Damn, I knew you’d figure it out, but that was fast,” Lucas said.
I laughed as I slid the top panel off. “You’ll have to give me a better challenge next time—”
My words came to a screeching halt when I looked inside the box and saw a diamond ring with teal stones. Time seemed to freeze—I couldn’t even think. For a moment, I had no idea what I was looking at. Lucas pulled the ring out of the box, then knelt to one knee.
“Nadine Evers, I don’t care how much time we have left. I want to spend every moment of it with you. Will you marry me?”
Tears welled in my eyes, and I forgot how to speak.
