Page 124 of Point of No Return

“Aleks is alive. And unharmed.”

More tears fall and I don’t bother stopping them as he slowly walks forward. “I meant to kill you.”

He is just steps away. And I don’t know why I can’t move. He’s close enough to touch, close enough to feel, and when he reaches forward, I nearly gasp as his fingers graze my neck.

He tugs on the chain around my throat, lifting the loop until it reveals the ring attached to it. It’s the ring he gave me all those months ago at the races- when he hated me- when I hated him. And I kept it. It was the last thing I had of him, and selfishly, I kept it.

His voice is pure honey, dripping over me. “I don’t believe you.”

I retreat toward the kitchen, furiously wiping away the tears. “You shouldn’t have come here. I don’t want you here. I want you to leave.”

I betrayed you. I lied to you. I put you both in danger. And I did it on purpose.

“Stop,” he says just as my back hits the kitchen island. I’m cornered with nowhere to go as he closes in on me.

“You should’ve let me go the day I left you.” The traitorous tears continue.

“You aremy wife, Charlotte. My family. Not my obligation.” Breathless sobs flow freely from me now, and the words fill my chest, soothing every wounded edge. “Mywife. I would give anything to find you.”

He came for me.

But why?I want to ask but I’m too busy wiping away the tears.

“Please,” I beg, unable to say anything else.

“I love you, Charlotte. I have spent the past year loving you. There’s not a damn thing that can change the way I feel about you,” he confesses. I desperately want to reach forward and touch him, to pull him into me and confess what I feel for him. “Not miles, not years. Nothing-”

“You don’t understand… Youcan’tbe here.”

Skar reaches toward me, and it takes every last bit of resolve I have to step away from him. “Charlie,” he’s practically begging.

“I don’t beg,”he’d once said. Yet for me, he will…

“You…” I shake my head, gathering every last bit of courage. “You are not the only person I betrayed.”

I’m powerless to stop his hands as they tilt my chin up. “She won’t hurt you anymore,” he repeats, his thumb swiping away my tears. My head shakes, disbelief still too strong. “Please don’t stab me for this,” he says against my lips as he bridges the gap between us.

Everything burns- his hands, my tears, my lips, every word said between us. His lips are rough, desperate, against my own. And I don’t allow myself not to relish in him. I push onto my toes, kissing him back as his hands tangle in my hair, tugging.

This man, everything about him, was made for me. I breathe him in, loving the feeling, the taste, the safety of him.

I pull back just enough that he can hear me. “I’m so sorry. Skar, I’m so…”

He kisses me deeper, his tongue sweeping my bottom lip as his hands explore me, pulling me flush against him.

I don’t care that it hurts as he grips my waist and lifts me onto the counter. The pain laces with something sweeter as he settles between my legs, the taste of salt an afterthought. He kisses me like he’s not sure I’m real- like he’s scared I’ll slip through his fingers like sand through a sieve.

Five months and yet when he touches me, it’s still hard to catch my breath. Five months and I still love him just as deeply as the day I left. But I break apart from him, and our foreheads meet. Disbelief, relief, fills me to the brim, and I shake my head as more tears fall.

“How did you find me?”

“Crew and I followed your mother from Mournstead.”

“Is he here?”

“He’s further behind me, but he’s in the city.” Skar’s thumb catches a stray tear, and he kisses another away. “These tears should never be for me,” he murmurs, and I can’t help but grip the collar of his shirt.

“Skar…” His gaze sweeps over my face, over the shorter length of my hair, as he tilts my head back. His lips brush against my temple, and I squeeze my eyes shut to keep myself from falling apart. “Eva, she won’t… There’s only one way this ends.”

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