Page 65 of The Labyrinth

I passed by the gates, the camps within my sight, when a waving guard caught my attention. He looked distressed.

“Ten!” he called.

I paused, stopping even as my feet twitched. Maybe he had seen Rissa on the way to the camps. Instead, the words out of his mouth surprised me. “Ten, I, uh, your wife was just here. She told me you sent her on a mission, and I, uh, just wanted to tell you I opened the gates like you asked. No trouble from me.”

The young guard was looking for my approval, but his words weren’t computing. “My…wife?”

He nodded, eyes wide. “Yes, I didn’t want you to think I disrespected her in any way. She told me what you said, and I obeyed.”

My wife. I smirked to myself, my heart beginning to slow for the first time today. She was such a fucking brat. I was going to tan her ass once I brought her home. “Did my wife happen to tell you her name?”

“Uh, Rissa, sir. Rissa Furie.” He looked confused. “We are supposed to listen to her, aren’t we? She told me she was on official business.”

The poor guy. He had let Rissa out into the desert, but it also wasn’t his fault Rissa had played him. That was all mywife’sfault. Besides, now I knew where she had gone. Back to Ironforge. “You didn’t do anything wrong, soldier. Thank you for respecting Rissa. You have my gratitude. But I will need you to open these gates for me now, so that I can collect her.”

“Yes, sir.” He jumped to attention, opening the gates wide for me.

I gave him a grateful nod, then took off into the desert.

Rissa had gone back to her village. She had left me to return to her family. Was she that desperate to get away from me that she had fled the first chance she got? Had she not seen all the signs that we were meant to be together, that our souls were two halves of the same coin? She could run away from me all she wanted, but her heart would still beat for me. It would call out to me when she slept at night, her body craving what only I could give her. She would ache in unexplainable ways, her mind calling out for a missing piece of herself she couldn’t describe. She could run away from me. She could run away from me, and try to start anew, but it wouldn’t mean anything.

It wouldn’t mean anything because how does your heart beat when your blood runs in another body? How do you breathe, when the air you crave is being expelled from another’s mouth? I would make her see that. I didn’t care if it took a week or ten years. She was mine, and I was hers, and we carried bits of each other under our skin, and that kind of transference of souls couldn’t be undone. We were forever, her and I. Two bodies, made completely different, with two different lives, and yet together we were the same person.

I ran through the sand as fast as I could, quicker without Rissa chattering away behind me. Even still, I missed it. I wanted her there with me, beside me, asking me questions. I wanted her curiosity, her passion. I wanted her love, and her grace. I wanted her strength, and her sin. I wanted it all.

It was beyond scorching out in the desert, and I hoped she had her shoes. Her feet would burn otherwise. And what clothing was she wearing? Was she safe?

I passed the first few shacks to the village, not caring that I was storming through their small community at a time when everyone was on the streets. I had only come before when they were empty, as most of us did, so as not to create a scene. But now, in the hot sun, I was in the middle of their world, completely exposed. A woman running a stall in their market screamed, and another dropped his basket of corn, the ears tumbling every which way. A little boy stumbled, his ball scattering, his mouth open wide. I didn’t care who saw me. I only cared about the woman I was going to bring home. The woman waiting in the small shack, too small for so many people. The woman who defied me, with strength lining each of her bones. The woman with the bright green eyes, who reminded me what it felt like to love.

I couldn’t feel my fingers, but my heart was alive. I wasn’t sure what I was walking into. I pushed open the door to her small shack, trying to catch my breath. I was certain everyone in the entire village was staring at me, wondering what was happening, but I couldn’t worry about that right now.

Her whole family was home. They stopped to turn, to stare at me. We had been here before, once, and now we were here again. This time, though, it felt different. There, sitting on the bed, looking just as stubborn as she had the first time, was Rissa. She looked up at me with surprise clear on her face, but otherwise looked absolutely fine. “Ten?”

“Rissa,” I breathed. I pushed past her brothers, gathering her into my arms. I expected her to push me away but instead she collapsed into my embrace, her body caving to my touch like it always did. I wanted to scream at her, to demand to know why she disobeyed me, why she left, but the only words that left my mouth were, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

She pushed away from me, stroking my face with her hand. “Of course I’m okay. Are you okay?”

I nodded. “I’m fine. But when I got home, and I saw the window, and the rope you made, I…I thought the worst.”Tell me why you left. Tell me you won’t leave again. I’ll kidnap you again, and take you home with me if I have to. But I don’t want to.

Rissa was quiet for a moment. “I needed to warn my family about the Ravens. And I was mad. I was so mad. I thought we were different, Ten. I thought I meant something to you. And then you locked me away again like I was nothing more than your pet.”

“You escaped out a window?” Ettie gasped.

“He locked you in your room?” Bear snarled.

I didn’t care what they thought. I only cared about the woman in front me, and what she thought. “I’m sorry. I was trying to keep you safe the only way I knew how. But I realized it was wrong, and I actually turned around because I changed my mind. And then the apartment building blew up. And then by the time I got home…”

“I was gone,” she murmured. She tipped her head to the side, considering her next words. “For what it’s worth, I was going to come home.”

“You were?” My heart was in my throat, hammering away, making it difficult for me to form any words.Home. She was going to comehome. She wasn’t running away from me.

She nodded. “You’re my home, Ten. I realized it as soon as I left.”

She was too good to me. I didn’t deserve any of this. I deserved brutality, and anger, not the quiet benediction Rissa was offering me now. But I wasn't one to turn away a gift like the one she was giving me. I would earn her, every day for the rest of my life if I had to. I brushed my lips across her forehead. “I love you. I’ll do better. I promise.”

“I don’t want better. I wantyou.” Rissa paused, a funny expression on her face. “But…”

“Anything.” It felt like the room was holding its breath, waiting to hear what she was going to say.

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