Page 150 of Diamond Kisses

Happy tears pricked my eyes.

Any pain I felt couldn’t compete with the sheer wonderment of this moment. I wanted to reach for him, but I didn’t know what level of tolerance he had today. Instead, I just drank him in. I studied the glossy blackness of his hair, the endless wisdom in his dark eyes, and the quirk of his handsome mouth.

People often said we looked similar despite not sharing blood.

I liked to think we did, even if it wasn’t possible.

He never looked away from me, not finding it awkward to hold eye contact like some. We shared an entire conversation in that look, all while his hand kept petting whatever it was he’d placed beside him.

Looking down, my eyebrows rose. “That’s a bunny.”

He smirked. “That’s a Tiger.”

“Tiger?”

He rubbed his fingers along the rabbit’s short white ears. “His name is Tiger. He’s a jersey woolie.”

I snuggled against my pillows, melting with joy. My heart smouldered with pain as if it’d been punched a few times. But it still knew how to love, how to thrum.

God, it’d been so long.Toolong. I’d missed him so much. Missed our connection, our unexplainable bond, and how he viewed the world.

Innocent and all knowing.

Calm and centred.

“And why is Tiger on my bed?”

Krish stroked the adorable creature’s black-splashed nose, his finger ever so soft, his eyes pooling with love. “Because you left, and I had no one. No one quiet to be with anyway.”

I nodded, memories unspooling the longer I solidified in this dream.

Ihadleft.

First by choice with a few days holiday with my ex-boyfriend and then by duress with Henri.

Henri…

My aching heart pinched. I looked around the room. “Where’s Henri, Krish? Do you know?”

“I don’t know anyone called Henri.” He looked down, petting, always petting his little bunny. The rabbit was more than content to accept his love, curling its little front feet and collapsing into a ball. Its cheeks chattered, and brown eyes half closed.

“He’s purring,” Krish whispered. “They do that, you know.”

I smiled even though my pulse picked up, worrying about Henri. The last I’d seen of him was when he ran after Victor. He’d been bleeding and hurt. Everything had been so dark and smoky. The air reeked of death and bitter blood.

Glancing down at my body, I noticed clean skin and a white t-shirt.

This definitely had to be a dream. I had no fear. No wounds. Just pure sunshine and love with my brother.

Maybe you died back there on the island.

I stiffened.

Perhaps.

Maybe we’d never won.

Maybe we’d failed and all the jewels had perished.

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