Page 132 of Fearless

His rough hands cup my tear-streaked face. “You almost died thinking it was me who killed you. Thinking that I would ever lay a hand on you again for any reason other than a caress. I told you I would never fight you again, but there I was, hurting you like I promised not to.”

“Shh.” It’s difficult to talk through the emotion clogging my throat. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t do this.”

He nods. I melt against him. Memorize this moment, because I thought we wouldn’t have it again. He runs a soothing hand down my back, chin resting against my hair. “It looked too real. Like I was watching myself lose control,” he finally whispers.

His voice breaks. Pulling back, he cups my face with trembling hands. Gone is the Enforcer and every mask that accompanies him. This is Kai alone—my fool and my love.

“I couldn’t save you. Not even from myself.” He nearly chokes on the words. “Forgive me. Please.”

I shake my head at him. “There is nothing to forgive. Because I…”

I’m crying again. It seems that I haven’t stopped in days, but possibly for the first time in my life, it doesn’t make me feel weak. This is relief that pours from me, a mingling of happiness in his presence and fear at the admittance in my throat. “Kai, I—”

My feet leave the ground for a moment before landing atop his. I laugh through the tears, propped on his boots just like I had when it was a chain tethering us together, not something far more unbreakable. His arms twine around my waist tightly. “Tell me, Pae.”

Swallowing, I force out the string of words. “I watched you die in that arena. I watched my own dagger sink into your chest with my hands wrapped around the hilt. And then, you were slipping away.” I blink, gaze blurry. “And I hadn’t even said those three words I was so sure would take you away from me. It took your death to find my courage, and by then, you were… you were gone.”

My voice trembles. Cracks. Crumbles with my composure. “But I can’t wait for another tragedy. So I’ll tell you now, because fate likely won’t allow us a future. Kai, I—”

“I love you.”

Kai steals the words from my mouth with a spreading smile. And, distantly, I realize this isn’t the first time he’s uttered such a declaration. He lifts a hand to my tear-stained face, stroking a thumb over the flushed skin there. “Paedyn, I love you. Like nothing else before,I love you. And I’ve been waiting to tell you since I realized your eyes are my favorite color and your freckles the only constellation worth looking at. I could lie—say that you’ve stolen my every thought and heartbeat like the thief you are, but all of me was already yours. Pae, you are my inevitable.”

Tears stream down my face, dampening Kai’s fingers. He’s crying just the same, and yet, his eyes never leave mine. He utters the words again, as if they have consumed his every thought and begged to be loosed. “You are my inevitable. In death, and in love.”

“And you are mine.” I smother my sobs long enough to whisper, “I love you, Malakai. I love you.” I can’t seem to stop spewing the words now that I’ve said them. It’s freeing, letting go of the fear that accompanied that phrase. “I love you. I love you. I love y—”

His mouth is on mine, tasting the words from my lips. I breathe him in greedily as tears mingle with the kiss. His hands run down my body, gently memorizing every curve beneath the robe. Sighing into his mouth, I twine my arms around his neck. I feel delicate in his embrace, as though he is holding something priceless.

Love.

That is what this feeling is. And it is all-consuming.

He pulls back slightly, lips still lingering above mine, and lands a light flick to the tip of my nose. “My pretty Pae. Look what you have done to me.”

I smile up at him, returning the favor with a flick of my own fingers. “I could ask you the same, pretty Prince.” My gaze shifts to a pair of heels sitting innocently beside my wardrobe. “You already told me you loved me, didn’t you?”

A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “You seemed more interested in the shoes I’d found discarded on the dance floor.”

I nod at the vague memory. “You carried me to my room.”

“Well, you were becoming quite the tripping hazard on the dance floor.”

My throat is dry. I swallow thickly. “You love me.”

“Then.” His hands cup my face. “Now.” My lips brush his. “Always. And I’ll find your shoes for you in every lifetime if you’ll allow it.”

We stand there, held in each other’s arms for several silent moments. But that is all it takes for the questions to creep back toward the forefront of my mind. So when a shadow of confusion crosses my face, Kai asks, “What is it?”

“Kitt knew it wasn’t you in that arena,” I murmur.

My eyes fall to his unscathed chest.

“So who did I kill?”

CHAPTER 49Kai

“I see you two found each other.”

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