Page 129 of The Crown’s Temptation

"What was recovered, it can help me sustain at night. With enough treatment I should be able to come through the wards for short periods soon."

"But."

"But I will be tired in the daytime, he says." My words were quiet.

He looked at me for a long time.

"I'll still be here," he said finally.

"Every night?" I whispered.

"Until the day I die."

I searched his face. He meant every word and my heart could not take it.

"Tomorrow then," I managed.

He nodded once. His hand was still trembling.

I looked at him one more time. Then I turned to go.

I had taken three steps before I stopped. Eravic had said I wasn't ready. Perhaps he had underestimated what desperation could accomplish.

I turned back and ran at the ward and pushed through it. His arms closed around me before I had fully understood that I had crossed. A sound tore out of me against his chest, one that had been waiting since the night of the dinner.

"You are not supposed to⁠—"

"I cannot survive it," I said. I looked up at him. "I cannot survive this separation from the one person..."

His arms tightened. His chin came down on top of my head.

"I know," he said, his voice rough against my hair. "I know."

The rest dissolved into a sob I had been holding back for days. Maybe weeks.

"We were perfect."

He pulled back just enough to look at me.

His eyes searched every part of my face as though he expected me to disappear if he blinked.

"We still can be," he whispered.

His thumbs brushed away tears that refused to stop falling.

Neither of us moved. We simply breathed the same air again.

"Every night I tell myself I'll make it until tomorrow," he said quietly. "Every morning I discover I lied."

I cupped his face.

"I'm here."

His eyes closed.

Then his mouth met mine, and nothing existed. Not Morrath, not the poison, not the war, not the ward.

We stayed like that for a long while, kissing with the slow relief of people who had already lost each other once.