Page 151 of Bound to the Dreadlord

I feel the implications of that choice settle between us, a fragile thing that could shatter at the slightest wrong move.

“You look like a ghost,” she says. Her voice is quiet.

I almost flinch at the sound of it, like it is something I was not meant to hear.

She has not spoken to me in weeks.

Not even in the dreams that haunted me, where she stood just beyond my reach, fading into the darkness no matter how many times I tried to grasp her.

"I should be," I say, my voice rougher than I expect. "You killed me when you left."

The words come out without me thinking.

I don’t mean for them to sound like a plea.

But they do.

Her jaw tightens, but she continues to stare at me.

"And yet, here you stand," she murmurs.

"As do you."

She should leave. She has every reason to.

After everything I have done, after everything I almost let happen, she should walk away again.

She stands there, staring at me like she is searching for something in my face.

"Why are you here?" I ask finally, because I need to hear her say it.

Her eyes flicker with something unreadable.

"I don’t know," she admits.

It should be a simple answer.

But it isn’t. She made the choice to be here and despite the agony twisting inside me, I cannot help but hope.

I could tell her I still want her. That I have spent every night chasing her shadow, waking up to nothing, drowning in the absence she left behind.

I could beg. Push. But I want this to be out of her freewill.

I just want to be honest to her. For the truth to prevail between us.

"You are the only thing that ever mattered," I tell her. “I love you.”

Something flashes across her face—something raw, something dangerous.

The ruins around us are silent, as if holding its breath, waiting for her answer.

The ghosts of war still linger in the space, but they are nothing compared to the storm building between us.

She could leave. She could turn and disappear again, and I would not stop her.

But she doesn’t. She stays.

That is all I need.

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