Page 48 of The Rusalka and Mr. Right

“Slow down!” He makes me smile—even now. How do I explain my fears? That what he has isn’t true love. That my soul isn’t human, and I don’t know where it will go when I die. Will Kev be forced to spend eternity in some demonic dimension?

“Okay. Where. Are. The. Words? Text. Them. To. Me.” Kev says very slowly.

“Idiot,” I tease.

“Stubborn.” He lifts my hand and kisses the back of it. “Go on.”

“I can’t let you take the risk. Once you’re all in with me, you’ll be stuck. No divorces, no annulments. The words bind for life and eternity.” In the back of my mind, I wonder if there is some way to break the bond—but I have a feeling no external force could do it. Maybe if we both let each other go...

I don’t know. I have to assume—this is it.

It’s his turn to stare at his plate.

“Scary. I know. I don’t think you should do it. Even if you did—the soul isn’t mortal. You wouldn’t just be binding yourself to me for this life, but for an afterlife. An eternity! And I’ve killed innocent people. My soul could go to Hell. I don’t know if yours would go with it.”

More silence, deeper, more profound. Kev leaves the table and paces in his living room, hands folded into a steeple and pressed to his lips.

I know it’s selfish to want him for myself. I know I should be preparing to let him go. Even if he doesn’t believe in all the things I’ve said, I believe them, and that should give him pause.

“Okay.” Kev’s voice is loud and startles me out of preparing my bittersweet farewells.

“Okay?” Okay, we’re done? Okay, I’m right, and we shouldn’t take this risk?

“One. I’m not sure what I believe in terms of an afterlife. I believe that people can be forgiven and that they can turn their lives around. You did. So, I don’t think that your soul is necessarily hellbound. Two—what if our souls are stuck together for eternity? Who says soul wins? Why doesn’t mine? If this Koshchei handmaids you up and instantly you belong to him on some mystical soul level, if I say the words, do you belong to me? Because then maybe you’d go where I go—and I don’t know where I go. I’m not perfect.”

I think of the selflessness of my lover, his belief in forgiveness and chance, his good heart, and his career that is devoted to ending pain and bringing healing. “You will head heavenward, darling.”

“Then you’ll go with me. Or maybe we’ll be stuck in the middle. Maybe we don’t go anywhere... but you’re saying your people believe we would be together?”

“Yes!Forever.”

“Well, then. Can’t be all bad. You’ll be there. If I get to be with you, then I don’t care about the rest.”

I sniff in sudden tears, overcome. “You have a brave and noble heart.”

Kev returns to the table but doesn’t sit. He kneels at my feet, looking up at me.

It should be the other way around, and he doesn’t even know it. Humble, too, my man. I lay my hand against his cheek, staring into his shining dark brown eyes.

“Brave and noble? Like your knight in shining armor?”

“The shiniest.”

He stands and pulls me with him. “Would you say that this knight might have a shot with the queen?”

My breath catches, something between a gasp and a sob. “Yes.”

“And when he marries her—he becomes the king, right? Her king? Her everything?”

I nod, both hands sliding to his shoulders. As tall as I am, he’s just a little taller, and he makes me feel like I have someone to look up to—not just physically, but in every way. “He is already a king. A warrior king. He doesn’t need a queen to take possession of his crown.”

“Girl... Marina, the way you talk...” Kev shakes his head, gives up looking for words, and then kisses me. “Tell me the words,” he whispers when we pull apart.

“I will—soon. Why don’t you take some time to think about it.”

“I already thought. If this Big K bastard is coming for you in the middle of October—I want us to be a done deal ASAP. If he weren’t a thing, if he wasn’t even in the picture—do you know what I’d want?”

I shake my head, confused. “What?”

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