“Two minutes,” she repeated, debating between long sword and dagger. “I need to go in and check the soup anyway.”
“I don’t mean back into the bloody kitchen. Will you go with me?”
She glanced over, automatically lifting her camera, framing his face and capturing the intensity of it. A good meal, she thought, another solid night’s sleep, and she’d be ready for full training by the next morning.
“Where?”
“Home. To my home.”
“What?” She lowered the camera, felt her heart do a quick, hard jump. “What?”
“When this is done.” He kept his eyes on hers as he closed the distance between them. “Will you come with me? Will you be with me? Belong to me?”
“Back with you? To the twelfth century?”
“Yes.”
Slowly, carefully, she set the camera down. “Why do you want me?”
“Because all I see is you, all I want is you. I think if I have to live five minutes in a world without you in it, it would be eternity. I can’t face eternity without seeing your face.” He brushed his fingers over her cheek. “Without hearing your voice, without touching you. I think if I was sent here to fight this war, I was sent here to find you as well. Not just to fight with me. To open me. Glenna.”
He gathered her hands in his, brought them to his lips. “In all this fear and grief and loss, I see you.”
She kept her eyes on his as he spoke, searching. When the words were done, she touched a hand to his heart. “There’s so much in there,” she said quietly. “So much, and I’m so lucky to be part of it. I’ll go with you. I’ll go with you anywhere.”
The joy of it spread inside him, warmed as he touched his fingertips to her cheek again. “You would give up your world, all you know? Why?”
“Because I’ve thought of living five minutes without you, and even that was eternity. I love you.” She saw his eyes change. “Those are the strongest words in any magic. I love you. With that incantation, I already belong to you.”
“Once I speak it, it’s alive. Nothing can ever kill it.” Now he framed her face. “Would you have me if I stayed here with you?”
“But you said—”
“Would you have me, Glenna?”
“Yes, of course, yes.”
“Then we’ll see which world is ours when this is done. Wherever, whenever it is, I will love you in it. You.” He touched his lips to hers. “And only you.”
“Hoyt.” Her arms came hard around him. “If we have this, we can do anything.”
“I haven’t said it yet.”
She laughed, rained kisses over his cheeks. “Close enough.”
“Wait.” He drew her back, just an inch. Those vivid blue eyes locked with hers. “I love you.”
A single beam of light shot out of the sky, washed over them, centered them in a circle of white.
“So it’s done,” he murmured. “Through this life and all the ones to come, I’m yours. And you’re mine. All that I am, Glenna.”
“All that I’ll be. I pledge that to you.” She held close again, pressed her cheek to his. “Whatever happens, this is ours.”
She tipped back her head so their lips could meet. “I knew it would be you,” she said softly, “from the moment I walked into your dream.”
They held each other in the circle of light, held close while it bathed them. When it faded, and twilight oozed over the day, they gathered the rest of the weapons, and took them into the house together.
Cian watched them from his bedroom window. Love had flashed and shimmered around them in a light that had all but burned his skin, seared his eyes.