Page 271 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
“Whether you like it or not,” Hallie whispered, “you’re stuck with me. Maybe we’ll even leave swords behind.”
Kase didn’t understand, not really, and maybe he never would. But he didn’t care.
He’d accepted her death. He’d accepted he would live the rest of his days alone, but with the hope of finding her in the end.
Surely his brain was playing tricks on him. He’d scoffed about the story of the souls when Saldr had told it to them. Sharing souls only happened in stories.
But her fingers on his cheek were real.
She forgave him, and in time, he might be able to forgive himself.
He gazed deep into her eyes, and he was very much in danger of drowning in their depths. He wouldn’t mind. He would stay there forever.
He wouldn’t ever let her go. He’d never let her fall. He’d protect her to his last breath.
He drew her in and hooked one finger underneath her chin, tilting her face to his. He leaned forward, brushing his nose with hers.
Warmth. Tingling in his chest.
The pause was tense and one little breath could shatter it.
“I love you, Hallie Walker, and I’d do anything to keep you, even if you took my entire soul.”
She could. It was hers to take.
“You are my forever, whether in this life or the next. I’m not perfect. I mess up more than most, but you’ve never given up on me. Not when we first met, not now.”
He swallowed the lump that rose in his throat. Her breath trembled against his lips. “I want to cherish you, protect you, and start a family with you. I want to love you even when we find ourselves in the beyond.”
Last time, he’d been sure. He’d known he wanted to be with her, had known she’d ruined every other woman for him. She was the sunshine to his summer day, the stars to his winter night…but the world had been on the brink, uncertain and braced for impact.
Now, there was nothing to hold them back, not even himself.
He teased her lips with his, brushing them softly as he whispered, “Marry me, Hals, please.”
Her breath hitched, and she brushed his cheek with the back of her fingers. Her lips parted in a smile that teased him, begging for him to kiss her until she no longer remembered her name.
“Yes.”
He’d kissed her before, but none of them compared to the feeling of her lips pressing to his right then. The storybooks always talked about sparks and fire, but this was an inferno, and he was consumed by the blaze. With it, the cracks in his heart welded back together. He’d never let her go. He didn’t have to. She was his, he was hers. Forever.
Kase was finally free.
Chapter 52
JOVE HARLAN SHACKLEY
Clara
EVEN THOUGH THEY HADN’T LEFT the capital, the landscape was utterly foreign to Clara after so much time spent in the Catacombs. It was almost as if she’d been living in another world, and the city that had been her home for the past five years was now a barely remembered dream. It took her too long to navigate the streets she’d once traversed by motorcoach. Debris littered the alleyways and lanes. Entire buildings had been blown apart, their white and wooden bones scattered like dead leaves across her path. As she guided her mother through the city and held her son close to her chest, she just wished it would all end.
It still didn’t seem real that she’d survived the first attack; that the graves she now walked on could have been hers. Her son’s. Her husband’s.
She’d been fortunate not to Burn loved ones in the last weeks, but she wasn’t sure if her luck would hold out much longer. Tragedy seemed to follow her like a hawk to its prey.
Adrenaline was the only thing keeping her on her feet as her lips burned with the memory of the last kiss she’d given her husband. She hadn’t wanted to leave him there amid such danger and uncertainty. She’d done that before, and it had nearly killed them both.
But even after everything, she trusted Jove with her whole heart. Samuel needed her, and she would protect him at all costs. She would deal with what came after as best she could, for everything would come together as it should—whether she were in the line of fire or not.
