Page 121 of Obsidian Dream
Talik grazed his hand over her face, tracing her lips with a calloused finger.A silent tear rolled down her cheek.In the past, she would have wiped it away and moved before anyone saw the hint of vulnerability.Even Talik.That was the past.She was done trying to be the perfect Atlantean, daughter, and warrior.
He pulled her face to his lips and kissed the tear away.His breath was warm on her skin.His scent reminded her of home.
“Why didn’t you let me know what was happening, that Ninhursag had a hold on you?”
“I couldn’t, not without risking your life.She made it impossible for me to almost even think the words.”Talik swallowed, his eyes slightly misty.“How did you work it out?”
“Kade realized there was something different about your scent.”
Talik softly traced her cheek.Her heart fluttered as she closed her eyes to savor the moment.
“I made you cry,” Talik whispered.“Again.”
“Grief can make you realize what you have more than what you have lost.Make you believe that within the darkness and the tears, there is a fragile beauty that must be protected because it is more powerful than hope,” Khalida slowly responded.She shifted, returning to her original position of lying next to him, where she could listen to Talik’s beating heart.
Grief was also about finding the right words, so she didn’t weaponize her wounds.It was what she had done in the past—used the wounds to build a barrier around herself to keep everyone out.She twirled Talik’s hair, focusing on how the light caught the different colors.“All I know is that without you, there is no hope or beauty.You make me mad enough that I want to kiss you and stab you at the same time, mark you until you are mine and everyone knows it.”
Talik moved, rolling so she was directly under him.His big body settled over hers, protecting her from the outside world.
“I’m fine.Sore but alive, thanks to you,” Talik said before she could protest.“No hiding anymore.”
She wanted to curl into a ball, run away from Talik and this conversation.Instead she took a deep breath and counted—releasing the thoughts and ideas of inadequacy that had plagued her for her lifetime.Of never being good enough, no matter what she did.Of never truly belonging.It was time to move on.She was enough—had always been—and she no longer needed to prove it to herself or anyone else.
“You need to know what I bargained with before you decide.”
Talik waited patiently as he wiped another tear from her face.She wanted to close her eyes and transport herself to another room.He needed to know everything, openly and transparently, or it wasn’t going to work.And if she had to walk away, she wanted to make sure she had laid herself bare and shown him everything.The bright parts of her, as well as the darkness.She had made the decision, and she would make it again, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t grieve.Or think about what she had given up.Perhaps in the future, it wouldn’t feel like her heart had been broken into a million pieces, and each time she remade herself, the jagged pieces would fit together better than they did at the moment.But that wasn’t now.
Talik cupped her face, the touch both tender and possessive.“You have always been enough.”
Khalida swallowed.She wanted to believe the words, but the tiny voice in the back of her mind—the one that had grown increasingly louder as she had aged—had never been quiet.There were times when she could forget about it, forget the negative commentary existed.But sometimes in the quiet, the voice would grow louder until she couldn’t silence it.It was only now that she realized she needed to be the voice of reason, the one to put it back into its place.Talik could help, but it was her decision, her power.
Her throat was suddenly dry.“A life for a life.That was the bargain Lucien offered.”
Silence greeted her.She sighed, the sound releasing some pent-up anxiety she hadn’t known she had.
“Your life?”Talik slowly asked.His grip on her shoulder was deathlike.
She shook her head.Picking up his hand, she dragged it along her chest and placed it over her womb.“No.My ability to create life.”
The tears began to fall freely, and sobs rocked her body.Talik pulled her closer, wrapping her around his big body, until she didn’t know where she ended and he started.She breathed in his scent, his warm tears mixing with hers as they mourned a path that would never be.
“I’m sorry, Khalida,” Talik murmured, repeating it over and over.
***
KHALIDA
She didn’t know howlong they lay there, intertwined in each other’s arms, before the tears stopped.
Something heavy lifted from her heart.
“Kiki.”Talik lifted her head up.His dark eyes were tinged with sadness, but something else.
Love.
“I have loved others but never the way I love you.But you were the beginning—you made me realize what could be—and when Sidra died, it made me understand what true loneliness was.It took centuries to allow anyone else in, and they will always have a small part of me.But you, Khalida, you own me body and soul.It won’t be perfect, but I will always come back to you—even if I have to fight death.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but Talik shook his head.
