Page 92 of Covenant

“Yeah, it’s not, but that’s okay. I’m over it, over her and what we had. It wasn’t real.”

And neither is what we have either, I realize.

He’s silent as I move into the bathroom and shower. He doesn’t join me, just washes separately, and after we eat breakfast in near silence, he peers over at me.

“I made a reservation.”

“For what?”

“Can it be a surprise?”

“As long as you don’t drive anywhere.”

He rolls his eyes and then stands, taking our plates and putting them in the sink. “Come on. We don’t want to be late.”

* * *

“A fucking helicopter ride? Matt, are you serious?” I ask as I stare at the large death machine before us. A man is in the pilot seat and the other is waiting for us to step inside, but I don’t move.

“Deadly.”

“Oh god, don’t say deadly. I hate heights,” I reply.

Matthias’s face falls as the blades of the helicopter start to whip around violently. “Since when?”

“Since I realized you could die from falling from them,” I say, my stomach clenching in nerves.

“You used to climb things all the time.”

“Until the day I fell out of a tree and broke my ankle,” I say sourly. “Kinda put a damper on the whole thing.”

He frowns. “I don’t remember that.”

“It happened…after.”

After you betrayed me. Ghosted me.

The past stretches taut between us for a moment before Matthias speaks. “All right, but if you take this ride with me, we can see a volcano and the entire island.”

The way he looks disappointed has me inhaling deeply. He did this for me. This is my surprise. How long has he been planning this? Something inside of me cracks and I let out a long breath.

“What if we die?”

“We won’t. I know these guys. They’re the best. And the sky is clear and there’s no wind. We’ll be fine.”

I hesitate a little as his hand twines in mine.

“I won’t let you fall, Wy,” he says and those words have me moving forward. We step inside, place headphones over our ears, and Matthias straps me in before taking care of himself. Then the helicopter starts to move. Moments later, we’re so far off the ground that the people lingering on the island are just mere dots.

If we fall out of the sky, we’re not going to survive.

“Oh god,” I murmur as I grow lightheaded.

Matthias’s hand goes to my leg and he holds on to it tightly, grounding me.

“You’re safe, baby,” he says, and I peer over at him, at those eyes. So sincere, so well-meaning.

Why couldn’t he have kept that promise to me all those years ago? How different would this have been? Would I have ever come around to finding out how much I like having sex with him if we hadn’t been forced to marry? Or would we have just stayed friends?

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