Page 64 of Night Shift

So I do.

I step into his space and slide my arms around his neck.

His breath leaves him.

“Get used to me,” I say.

Then I kiss him.

For a heartbeat, he doesn't move.

Then his arms close around me.

Not to hold me there.

Just to hold me.

When I pull away, his forehead settles against mine.

“Tomorrow,” he says quietly, “you will leave again.”

“Probably. I have errands.”

His mouth almost smiles.

“And tomorrow night?”

“I'll come back.”

“You cannot promise that forever.”

There it is.

The fear that will probably always live somewhere inside him.

I touch his cheek.

“No. I can't.”

His eyes close.

“But I can promise to keep choosing you for as long as I get to choose anything.”

He opens them again.

For Erebus, eternity has always been a certainty.

Maybe loving me means learning to live without one.

I kiss him once more.

Outside, Blackthorn Bay settles beneath an ordinary night. Tomorrow morning, Erebus will let me go.

Tomorrow night, I'll come back.

Maybe that's all love ever really asks of us.

Not forever.