AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I watch in silence as Mal takes his seat, ready to have his skin marked with the same reminders that now sit on mine. He and Hanzo go over the limited open spaces on his skin and decide on an empty spot down the back of each triceps formemento moriandmemento vivere. Hanzo draws an intricate koi swimming upstream through the sea of tattoos already occupying most ofMal’s forearm and manages to find space on his back for the second.
Like me, they do the Latin lettering first. Then Hanzo moves on to thetebori-style koi on Mal’s forearm. After that, I’m still shaking a little bit from mine. So Hanzo does the koi on Mal’s back as I hold his hand—I think more for me than him.
“We can finish another time,” Mal growls quietly, looking at me with concern after Hanzo finishes cleaning and wrapping his new back piece.
I shake my head. “No. Tonight. I can take it.”
Hanzo eyes me, then he nods solemnly. “I think she can, too.”
So I lie on my front on the chair, holding Mal’s hands in both of mine as Hanzo starts in on my back.
Hanzo’s shop is still dark, but the clock on the wall tells me it’s well past sunrise by the time we’re done. I’m shaking and my head spins a little as I get out of the chair. But there’s a vivid energy inside me that throbs and pulses with every breath and step.
I thank Hanzo profusely, and he tells me it was his absolute pleasure. Then he leads us downstairs to the windowless room to rest. He’s right, it’s no hotel suite. But there’s a little cot nestled amongst the shelves of supplies.
That’s more than enough.
When we’re alone, Mal and I stand in front of a mirror on the wall, eying the new lines of text on our skin. There’s a moment of stillness between us, heavy with meaning.
“Now there’s no excuse,” he says, his voice low and rough. “We both remember to live.”
I reach out, tracing my fingers a few inches from the fresh ink on his arm. He catches my hand, pulling me closer until I’m standing against him, looking up into those ice-blue eyes.
“Thank you,” I whisper quietly. “For this. For everything.”
He doesn’t say anything, just pulls me into him, making me feel like I belong there. And for the first time in a long while, I’m not afraid of the future. I’m not afraid of what’s lurking, waiting for me.
Because for now, in this moment, I’m living.
37
FREYA
I stretchout on the couch, my body still abuzz. My skin feels raw, a mix of lingering cold from the ocean, the memory of Mal’s touch…
And, of course, my new tattoos.
My thoughts swirl as violently as the waves the other night, my pulse thudding like the thunder that crashed around us while we came together.
I mean…shit.
Maybe not something I’d be insane enough to try again, but let’s see anyone else top “fucking in a typhoon” the next time “wildest story” comes up.
The fantasy replay evaporates as my phone dings.
Cain.
I open our chat and smirk at the last message she’s just sent. It’s a meme about trying to fix broken code at 3 AM—the kind of thing that always makes me laugh.
Me
Fucking RELATABLE
Cain
LOL. I knew you’d get it.
Cain
