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"Did he kill your parents?"
Viola pulls the leather tie from the end of her braid and runs her fingers through her thick white hair, shaking it out. "No, he didn't. But I tasted his blood, and I'm pretty sure he's killed a lot of women, Mace."
I freeze, back rigid. "What do you mean?"
"I saw images of women being torn apart, ripped into pieces." She waves her hand as if banishing the horrific images. "It's of no matter now. I put him down."
The casual manner in which she speaks about killing someone used to bother me. I guess now that I have a death on my blade, it has lost some of its horror. I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her to me, tucking her head under my chin.
We sit like that for a long time, just listening to each other's breaths and heartbeats. Eventually, Viola breaks the comfortable silence. "I was never leaving you, Mace."
"I know, my numen."
"I would have slaughtered half of Ytopie to get back to you," she says, voice barely above a whisper.
"I know, my numen." My hand strokes down her hair. The slightly cool temperature of it used to be off-putting, but now that I have lost her, it is welcome and reminds me that she is real.
"You got your first kill."
I chuckle and respond, "I think we both know that I've got more death on my hands than that."
"It's not the same asbeing the one to pull the blade," she reminds me.
"You're right."
"How are you feeling about it? From what I heard and saw, this was not a necessary kill." From someone else, those words could be judgmental. But from Viola, they are curious.
It takes me a moment to sort my thoughts before I answer. "He was willing to let the rest of the land suffer. He wasn't going to give us any information on where to find the artifact. And when I found out that he hid it on a dangerous island and that I am going to have to watch you fight and get injured to get these items back?" I shudder, lifting her body slightly and pulling her onto my lap. "You've been through so much, and now, because of him, you're going to go through more. I was just so fucking mad, numen." I look up at the vaulted ceiling, it's brown beams collecting dust in the crevices as I inhale deeply and try to calm myself.
"Viola, I never doubted that you would come back to me. I would have left a trail of broken bodies behind me if it could have led you to me." I grab her chin, tilting her face up so she looks me in the eyes when I tell her this next part. "There is no horrible thing I will not do if it means I get to have you in my arms. I will burn the world, leaving just us if that is the only way to have you here."
She raises her hand, fingers blackened with decay dancing across my cheekbones. "Mace, I was a ghost when I met you. I followed my routine, pretended others didn't exist, and buried myself in training. Then I metyou, and it's like all the blood rushed back through my veins. Every day without you was a slow trickle that led me closer to insanity. Without you, I am not a God. I am just a monster hiding in plain sight."
Her words stagger me, and I have to stop myself from gasping. Viola Mistflow has never needed anyone in her life.
She's made it clear to everyone she's met that Viola does not now, and never will, need another person.
And yet she just said she needs me.
Her words weren't exactly that, but the meaning was clear.
She doesn't want to be without me again.
She doesn't like who she is without me.
I try to stop it, but I can't. Tears pour down my cheeks and fall on her hair. She looks up at me, a loving smile on her face. She doesn't call attention to the tears – she just wipes them away. Here, with her in my lap and her words in my ears, I have found my home.
"Never again will there be a day you wonder if I love you, numen. I begin and end with you, my beautiful nightmare."
She adjusts herself on my lap, pushing my back towards the bed and hovering over me. Her hair falls forward, tickling my cheeks as she cages me in with her arms. "Hi," she breathes, her lips hovering over mine. I wrap my arm around her hips, pulling her flush to my body, connecting our lips, and pushing my tongue into her mouth.
Her body immediately recognizes mine, melting into it. I feel every inch of her on me, the curve of her breasts on mychest, her hipbones socketed inside mine. She grinds her body against mine, my arousal becoming more evident every moment she is against me. I wrap my arms around her waist and roll us over, pinning her beneath me. Her flirty smile makes my stomach flip.
This moment is different than other times we've laid together. It feels raw, the edges jagged. I sit back on my heels, remove my shirt, and then wiggle Viola out of her pants. She doesn't fight me. She even lifts her hips to make the process easier. Sitting up, she removes her own tunic and unwraps her chest, exposing her breasts to me.
"Come here," I say, pulling her towards me. My legs rest over her hips, and we sit face to face, entangled, holding each other and worshipping each other with our mouths. I kiss down her throat, to the top of her breasts, and her back arches as I close my lips around her nipple.
It's hard to explain the emotions that are welling up in me as her soft flesh brushes against mine. In some way, this feels like our first time. Something about the separation, the worry that maybe we wouldn't make it back together, has charged this moment with more emotions than I think either of us expected.
