Morrighan (The Remnant Chronicles 0.50)

He stood in the middle of the wide porch entrance between two pillars watching me approach. He was early, just as I was. I slowed at the base of the steps, catching my breath. I looked at him in a way I never had before—in a way I hadn’t allowed myself to see him. How tall he had become, a head taller than me. His ribs no longer poked out pathetically, and his knotted ropes of hair had somehow become a thing of beauty and power. They fell gracefully over his shoulders, which were now wide and muscled. My gaze traveled to his chest, broad and strong, the chest that had brushed my back yesterday.

He watched me walk up the steps but said nothing. I said nothing, but I knew today would not be like yesterday or all of our days before that. When I reached the landing, a small quiet hello escaped from my lips.

He stepped back and swallowed. “I’m sorry I left so quickly yesterday.”

“You don’t need to explain.”

“I just came to tell you I won’t be coming anymore. There’s better hunting elsewhere.”

My gut turned hollow. My mind spun with disbelief.

“I can’t waste my days here with you,” he added.

In a single beat, my disbelief ignited into anger. I glared at him. “Because being friends with a girl of the Remnant is one thing, but being—”

“You don’t know me!” he yelled as he pushed past me, almost hurtling himself down the steps.

“Go, Jafir!” I yelled after him. “Go and never come back!”

He untied his horse with quick, angry jerks.

“Go!” I yelled, my vision blurring.

He paused, staring at the saddle, his hands clamped in tight fury on his reins.

My heart pounded painfully in a long hopeful beat, waiting. He shook his head, then mounted his horse and rode away.

Whatever air was in my lungs vanished.

I stumbled back into the ruin, my hand sliding along walls for support. The cool darkness swallowed me. I reached a pillar and slid to the ground, no longer trying to hold back my tears. My thoughts tumbled between grief, resentment, and rage. I will never come back here again either, Jafir! Ever! I will forget everything about this valley, including you!

But even in my anger, I ached for him.

I ached for all our yesterdays.

A door had been opened that couldn’t be closed again, no matter how angry he made me. He was in my thoughts, my hair, my fingers, my eyes, his memory in places where no one else had been, in a hundred ways that made no sense. I stared at the empty bag still clutched in my fist, my knuckles pale.

“There is no future for us, Morrighan. There can never be.”

I startled, looking up. He stood in the doorway, a tall silhouette against the bright day behind him. I knew he was right. A future was impossible. I could never embrace his home or kind, nor he mine. What did that leave us?

I stood. “Why did you come back?”

He stepped into the coolness of the cavern. “Because…” His brows pulled down, his eyes becoming dark clouds, still angry. “Because I could not leave.”

He walked closer until only inches separated us. His gaze was sharp and searching. There was so much I didn’t know about the ways between a man and a woman, but I knew I wanted him. And I knew he wanted me.

“Touch me, Jafir,” I said. “Touch me the way you did yesterday.”

His chest rose in a deep breath and he hesitated, but then he lifted a single finger, slowly tracing a line up my bare arm, his eyes following the path as if he was memorizing it, and then the path turned and his finger traveled across my collar bone, resting in the hollow of my neck. Something bright and liquid and hot rushed under my skin and through my chest. My fingers went slack, and I dropped the bag still in my grip.

I reached up and laid my hands on his chest, my fingertips searing, trembling at the feel of his skin beneath mine, the rapid beat of his heart, and I breathed in the scent of everything that was Jafir, earth, and air, and sweat. My hands burned, meeting in the middle and slowly traveling down, feeling his ribs and the muscles of his stomach. His breath faltered, a catch, and his hands came up to cradle my face, his thumb swiping across my cheek. We brought our lips closer, misjudged, bumping noses, but then my head turned one way, his another, and our mouths met, our tongues met, and it seemed there was no other way for us to be, tasting each other, exploring the feel of each other, discovering each other in ways we never had before.

His hands slid down my back, strong, pulling me snug against him, and his lips brushed over my cheekbone, my lashes, my temples, and all the empty spaces between.

&nb

sp; I didn’t think about his world or mine or the future we couldn’t have. I only thought about the warm light behind my eyelids, his soft murmurs in my ear, and the fullness of what we had in that moment. And we touched in all the ways of yesterday and more.