Page 195 of Mud

“Do you need anything?” I whispered. “Maybe water?” Because my mouth was dry, too, and I could find us water if I searched. After all, this place was entirely made out of ice as far as we could see.

“Yes,” Taland said, and I thought,I can do it. I can get up and go find us water and come back and rest.

But Taland had other ideas. “Yes, I do need something, sweetness.”

“Okay. I can—” I made to sit up again, go find that water.

Then Taland said, “A lie.”

I stopped.

“A very specific lie.”

I waited, heart in my throat…

“Tell me that you love me, won’t you?”

Just when I’d stopped crying.

Gritting my teeth, my muscles clenched tightly again, but this time it wasn’t from the cold of the ice. It was from the storm his words created inside of me that was freezingthe blood in my veins.

“Come on, sweetness,” he said after a moment. “A little lie won’t hurt. It’s nothing to you, is it? It’s a lie you’ve told before.”

“Taland, please,” I whispered, but if he heard me, he pretended he didn’t.

“That was the only time I’ve ever felt worthy, you know that? Like I could conquer worlds.”

There he went, laughing again, breaking me piece by piece.

And I needed it to stop so badly, so I said, “I love you.”

The words rang true because they were. Those fucking words that had been stuck in my throat from the moment I saw him again, that had been yearning to come out.

There. You’re out now.

Taland didn’t breathe for a good few seconds, and I could tell because I was lying on his chest.

“Goddess, you’re good,” he ended up whispering. “There can never be a better liar than you, sweetness. You’re so, so good at it.”

“Taland…”

“I never suspected. Not since the time you said youfell for methe first day.” Laughter, stabs at my heart. “Which, Ihatethat phrase, by the way,” he continued while I cried, curled up against his chest. “Falling in loveimplies there’s a bottom to fall to. An end. A limit to love—there isn’t.” My goddess, I could hardly breathe. “But if wemustfall, then I guess that fall is never-ending, and people should really specify that, don’t you think? Just so we know what we’re getting ourselves into.”

My eyes closed. I’d never once heard Taland talking like this before and maybe that’s what made it all the more painful.

He didn’t say anything again for the longest time, as long as it took me to fall half asleep—because falling asleep did have a bottom to reach. And I needed to escape so, so badly.

“Rose?” His voice was slow, barely a whisper.

My eyes didn’t open “Yes, Taland?”

“Lie to me again.”

No more tears in my eyes. “I love you.”

I slept.

“Rise and shine, sweetness.”

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