Page 71 of Gothikana

‘I’m sorry.’ She rubbed at his biceps.

He nuzzled her neck. ‘It led me to the institute’s data. That’s when I saw your mother’s photo.’

‘Purple eyes,’ Corvina whispered.

He nodded. ‘I went to see her.’

Wait, what?

She pulled back, holding his arms, her eyes widening on him as disbelief coursed through her blood. ‘Youwhat?!’

He pulled her right back in place, close to himself. The room around them got much darker than it had been before, but Corvina couldn’t look away from him, her heart racing at what he was telling her.

‘I went to see her.’ He gripped her chin, keeping her still. ‘Three years ago. Just to see if old woman Zelda had been right.’

‘And?’

‘I talked to her,’ he informed her like it wasn’t the most important piece of information he’d been holding onto. ‘She didn’t say much, but she talked about you. Told me her little raven girl would be all alone without her. She asked me if you’d been going to town more to see me. I think she was under the misconception that I was your lover. Asked me if I would look after you. Then she went quiet.’

Corvina felt her jaw tremble, her mind running to three years ago when her mama had just been admitted. ‘Then?’

He brushed an escaped strand of her hair away from her face. ‘Where were you three years ago, Corvina?’

Her heart stopped.

It couldn’t be possible.

No way.

No.

‘Where were you three years ago?’

The institute.

She’d been at the institute, getting herself tested after self-admission.

A huge, hollow cavity in her chest filled to the brim, overflowing with something so abundant she wasn’t sure if it was even healthy but she didn’t care, not as the epiphany struck her.

‘You saw me,’ she whispered, her throat tight, her eyes burning.

‘I saw you,’ he whispered back, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

‘You see me.’ Her lips trembled, the realisation that this man saw her, truly saw her, and still watched her with that look in his eyes making something inside her shift.

‘I see you.’ His silver gaze seared her. ‘I’ve always seen you.’

She didn’t know what happened after, she didn’t care to know what happened after, not in that moment, not when this man who saw her demons, knew her demons and accepted them, stood so close to her. She didn’t need answers, not with his hand on her face and his eyes on her eyes. He saw, truly saw, into her moon of a soul, one with blemishes and scars and a dark side unseen and unknown even to herself.

Corvina crushed her mouth against his, pouring everything she was feeling but could not verbalise in that moment into the kiss, the fierceness of her emotions taking her by surprise, the liberation in her heart making tears escape her eyes.

He knew.

He had always known.

And he wanted her anyway.

Something she never thought she would have, not because she didn’t deserve it, but because who would have wanted a girl with voices in her head and uncertainty in her future? Things like that had only existed in the books she loved to read, not in her life.

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