Page 69 of Echos and Empires
Almost.
“William,” she said, his name a tether she hoped would pull him back. “Listen to me.”
He looked up, and for a moment, she saw the boy she knew, the boy she loved. It made her breath catch, made her hope, made her move closer still.
“I’m going to bring you back to me,” Emma promised, the fierceness of it cutting through the doubt that threatened to choke her. “I don’t know what they did, but you’re not bleeding which means they went after your mind. And I will take it back.”
Her certainty wrapped around them, filling the air, charging it with a tension she could almost see. It crackled and snapped, pulling tight like a bowstring. The power of it was terrifying and beautiful, and it gave her strength.
His hands dropped to his sides, limp and resigned. “Emma,” he said, voice heavy with all the things he couldn’t say. “I’m not sure I?—”
She touched a finger to his lips again, but this time it was to feel the shape of them, to prove to herself that they were real and his and here. “We’ll get you there,” she said, soft but relentless.
Emotion surged inside her, too big to name, too tangled to contain. It poured out in a rush that caught them both off guard.“We’ll get us there,” she said, the truth of it ringing through the air like a bell.
She’d been afraid before, when the cave was an endless mouth threatening to swallow them whole. She was afraid now, but it was a different fear. One she could face head-on. One she could conquer, because it was for William, because it was for them.
Emma held his gaze, felt the heat of her own determination spilling into him, warming him, coaxing him back to life. He didn’t flinch this time. He didn’t pull away. He let it happen, let her happen, and the breath she’d been holding escaped in a rush.
“You can apologize later,” she said, a spark of wryness flickering in her eyes. “For now, you’re mine.”
The tension between them shifted, changed, melted into something else. Emma reached for him, and the final words she gave him were as much a promise as a threat.
“I’m not letting go.”
Emma undressed slowly, unbuttoning her doubt with each piece of clothing she shed. She wanted this to be deliberate, wanted him to know that she was placing herself entirely in his hands. Her shirt slipped from her shoulders like an old fear. Her jeans followed, pooling around her feet, and she stepped out of them with an ease she hadn’t expected. The chill of the cave bit into her skin, but it was nothing compared to the warmth she felt inside, a warmth she was determined to share.
William watched her, his eyes shadowed but not as dark as before, not as distant. The closer she came, the more they brightened, the more they filled with hope and hunger. Emma let him see everything she was—laid bare in body and in heart—let him see that she was his and he was hers and they would find their way back to each other.
“I’m here,” she whispered, her voice an echo of the promise he’d given her, an echo that resonated through the spaces between them, closing them off until there were none left.
William reached for her, his hands tentative, reverent. The first touch sent a shiver through Emma, a shiver that chased away the last of the cold and left her breathless. She leaned into it, into him, felt him steady beneath her and steadied herself against the newness of this old thing they’d always had.
She kissed him with a gentle urgency that only love could give. Her fingers traced his jaw, his neck, mapping the contours of a homecoming she’d almost given up on. The cave fell away until there was nothing but the heat of their intimacy, nothing but William, nothing but the warmth of his skin and the way it tangled with hers. Emma locked eyes with him, and in that moment, she knew everything would be okay. A silent understanding passed between them—a need for validation, for truth, for each other. The world outside was distant, irrelevant, and Emma let it go, giving herself over to this moment, giving herself to William.
The kiss was a beginning, a rebirth, a renewal. It tasted like them, like love, like forever. Her fingers threaded through his hair, and the contact was electric, sparking along her skin like an exposed wire.
The need that had driven her, the need that had consumed her, simmered just beneath the surface. It was patient now, tempered by the knowledge that they had time, tempered by the way William looked at her like she was his whole world.
They broke apart, breathless, and Emma pressed her forehead against his. The intimacy of the gesture making her heart lurch in her chest, making it impossible for her to hold back the words that came next. “I was so scared.”
William’s fingers trailed down her arms, leaving a path of warmth in their wake. “I was, too.”
She believed him. She believed in him. He was here with her, in every way that mattered, and it felt like a miracle. Like magic. Like everything she’d wanted since the moment he’d disappeared.
Their bodies moved together, a careful choreography of limbs and skin and whispered promises. She wrapped herself around him, losing herself in the tangle of heat and sensation. It was dizzying, the way he felt, the way they fit, the way she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began.
William’s touch was everywhere, everywhere, searing her with the certainty she’d been missing. It burned away the memory of fear, replaced it with a passion so bright it was blinding. Emma didn’t flinch. She met it head-on, welcomed it, absorbed it into every pore.
The cave, the world outside, the doubts she’d clung to—it all faded. There was only this. Only him. Only the desperate, glorious ache of wanting and having, of being and becoming.
She thought she’d lost him, thought she’d lost this, and now it was real, more real than anything else had ever been. The understanding between them grew, expanded, filled the air until it was the only thing she could breathe.
William’s eyes locked on hers, and she saw everything she needed there. Truth. Trust. Love. It flooded through her, a tide that couldn’t be stopped, a tide that she surrendered to without hesitation.
Her breath came in soft gasps, each one a testament to how far they’d come, each one a promise that they would never have to go so far again.
Emma’s body arched, pressing closer, seeking more. The connection was physical and emotional, seamless and whole. She rode the wave of it, giving herself over to the raw, beautiful completeness.
