I cupped Kyra’s face. “I want you.”
Her eyes locked on mine with uncertainty. “I want you too, I just feel like I’m missing some giant piece of our story.”
“Let’s make a new story,” I rasped. “One in this time, together.”
A small smile formed across her lips “You mean one where I’m the bartender and you’re the cranky boss?”
“You’d be cranky too if you couldn’t feel, yet remembered what it was like to feel everything, to be less powerful but not know why.”
One of her dainty hands slid up my cheek. Her fingertips were like velvet. “Do you remember? Why you did it? Why you tried to borrow a soul?”
A weight settled against my chest. “The truth?”
“Please.”
“I thought I was stronger. I thought without my soul I would be the same. But instead, nothing satisfied me. The only way to find satisfaction was to devour human flesh and even then I was always empty, but I had flickers of a past life where I’d been powerful—full. So I went to the only person who could give me what I craved. By then I was already lost to what I used to be, completely sick but unable to die. I barely lasted a hundred years without you in my life. When the goddess offered an exchange, I knew exactly what I was doing, but if it meant one day I would feel again, it would be worth it. So I allowed her to give me a borrowed soul, not knowing that mine would be restored thousands of years later. She was the goddess of death, you know her as, Mania, one of the Roman goddesses. She takes on different forms, different faces, and since the gods were all but extinct, I knew she would give me what I wanted.”
Kyra sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” I wrapped my arms around her body and pulled her close. “It could have been worse.”
She frowned. “I don’t see how?”
“I could have lost you.”
Her eyes flickered to my mouth. “You didn’t, I just wish…”
“What?”
“I wish that I remembered more… of us.”
“I know.” I felt helpless, something I was hoping would be a rarity. Then again, I did have p
ower, right? I would be limited, but maybe I could show her, maybe I had enough power to show her a glimpse. “I’m going to try something.”
“Okay.” She looked petrified.
I grinned. “It won’t hurt. It’s not like I’m biting you again.”
She gulped. “Yes. That.”
“You liked it.”
“Maybe.” She narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t worry, I liked it enough for both of us,” I whispered, lowering my head to hers, I pressed a kiss to her parted lips then deepened it as I placed my right hand on her chest. She jumped and then relaxed as power surged through my fingertips.
I felt her soul.
Felt the stirring.
I turned my fingertips, drawing her soul from her body. It clung to my hand just like I remembered, wrapped its tentacles around my fingertips so tight that I winced.
“It’s your turn,” I said against her mouth. “To remember.”
I kissed her harder then, sliding my tongue into her mouth while holding her soul in the palm of my hand, letting it take whatever energy or memories it needed.
Kyra gasped and pulled away. “We were in the Great Hall.”