Page 86 of Bastian

She leans back, a look of disappointment on her face. My not-so-cold queen looks as if she hoped there would be a better outcome than the one I told.

“In her grief and desperation, Hero threw herself in the raging sea and drowned as well.” Arianna looks away from me, clearly affected by the story. No, it is not a fairytale, but it is a beautiful story of love and the meaning of forever to some lovers. Without taking my eyes off her profile, I tell her the end. “Somehow, their bodies were found on the beach, in a tight embrace, and that’s how they were buried.” There’s a long silence as she continues looking away from me towards the sea. “Figures. Love like this story is a myth.” She mumbles, still looking away from me.

How I hate it when she looks away.

“The story is a myth, yes. But the lesson behind it isn’t.” There’s always a lesson. This I know from experience.

“Oh, please tell me what possible lesson is there of two lovers drowning at sea?”

“It’s a tragic story, yes, but it’s one about a love that transcends life and death,” I mutter and watch as she looks my way from the corner of her eye. I continue, “Hero guided her lover at night, and she became his light in the dark. While Leander swam each night, so he could meet and spend time with her, however long it lasted. And when one was lost to the other forever, the pain was so great she could not bear it. She could not bear life without it, so she ended it to meet him in the next life. Somehow, their love was so powerful that they found their way back to each other, even in death. They’re spending eternity in each other’s embrace, and that’s the lesson, darling. Love is ugly, and sometimes life is unfair, but love trumps the greatest obstacles. Love always wins, even when it feels like all is lost.”

I whisper so only she can hear and watch as she swallows and turns her head toward me. I don’t mind the teary green eyes cutting me deep. I watch as her eyes flash with every emotion, from hate to hurt, lastly to love and pain. “I don’t know what you want from me, Sebastian. But if forgiveness is what you seek, then for the sake of our girl, I forgive you.” She says fiercely, while the warm breeze blows her golden curls in all directions, making her look otherworldly to my eyes. “I forgive you because I can no longer keep drowning in this hate that won’t allow me to love her how she deserves. So, I chose Ellaiza. I choose her love over hating you.” I sit there in silence, transfixed by the beauty before me, while her words penetrate my heart like sharp knives. Cutting me deep, making me bleed. But I welcome this pain because not only can I carry it, but this is my time to atone for my sins against her. I would sustain a thousand knives to my heart if only it led me back to her heart.

I sit back and watch as she rises from her seat, towering over me. I am a man that always followed Science. The facts are facts, but a lot changed when I met her. I used to believe love, at first sight, was a myth. A thing of fools, but then I saw her, and I fell.

I used to also believe that a heart couldn’t break, but mine did. Hers did, as well. But it happened.

Now, this.

My heart is beating so loud inside my chest that I can hear it, or maybe I am just losing my goddamn mind. Perhaps. “Yes, I’ll work on forgiving you until I wish no ill will towards you, but if you’re waiting for me to love you again, it will be a cold day in hell before that happens.” She stares right at me, and for a second, only for a second, I believe her, but then she does that thing she used to when she was nervous.

She tucks her hair behind her ear.

Innocent.

Sweet.

Such a contrast to her usual self lately.

If you’re waiting for me to love you again, it will be a cold day in hell before that happens.

It cuts deep, yes, but I know her heart even if she refuses to admit it.

Time didn’t change that.

I know she loves me.

She hasn’t stopped because a love like ours has a beginning, yes, but it doesn’t have an end. Instead of telling her that, like every particle of my being wants to, I tell her. “I will wait forever if that’s how long it takes for you to trust me with your heart again.”

Her pretty brows furrow, but just as quickly, she masks her reaction, shakes her head as if she’s trying to shake my words, and turns.

She turns and leaves me there, with my heart in my hands, refusing it, and each step she takes away from me feels like a punch to my gut.

I did not lie.

I will wait my entire life if I have to.

Then, when I feel like nothing I told her tonight got through to her, she stops outside the restaurant’s door and looks back at me over her shoulder. For a second that feels like a lifetime, her green eyes clash with mine, telling me all the secrets that her mouth won’t, but then she turns and disappears from my view, and I am left to wonder if I imagined it all because having her back in my life feels to me like a dream.

The dream I’ve been reaching for three long years, and now it’s here, and I fear one day I’ll wake up to realize it was only that.

A dream.

ARIANNA

TRUSTING HEARTS

“I wanted the world for her.” — B

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