Page 195 of A Tribute of Fire

I’d never considered myself weak but I was quickly learning that, when it came to him, that wasn’t true.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“Why are you fighting what exists between us?” he asked.

My gaze flew up to his. “You know why. Nothing can happen.”

“Even if the goddess wills it to be so?”

“You have said that before. She doesn’t. Her laws say that we can’t be together.”

He shrugged one shoulder. “It’s her magic that connects us.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is a dream,” he said, looking around the room before his eyes returned to mine. “But I’m here.”

“And obviously I’m here,” I said. What did that have to do with anything?

That beautiful smile of his lit up his face. “Yes. You are in your bed and I am in mine but we exist in this space together.”

Now I took my hand away from his. “What are you saying? That this is real? I’m not imagining you, you’re actually here?”

He nodded.

“That can’t be,” I protested.

“It is.”

“Are you saying that everything that’s happened between us has been real? That we have both been here in our dreams the entire time?”

“Yes.”

Images flooded my mind and I put my head in my hands. All the things we did, the words we had exchanged—all of it had actually happened? “Everything you’ve said to me ...”

I trailed off, not able to complete the sentence.

He laid his hand out flat, offering it to me. Leaving it to be my choice whether I wanted to touch him again. Not able to help myself, I took it. I saw the way the tension left his body when I did so.

“I meant everything I’ve ever said to you,” he told me and my heart froze in place, refusing to beat.

He had all but confessed to being in love with me.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” I demanded.

“I thought you knew!”

This was too bizarre to be a true possibility. “Or I’m dreaming that you’re saying all this to me now. How do I know you’re not a figment of my imagination?”

He smiled slightly. “I don’t know. I’ve never had to prove my realness before.”

His hand squeezed mine gently and I looked at where we were joined, still not quite able to comprehend what was happening.

“I have kissed you a thousand times,” he said, “and would kiss you a thousand more if fate allowed it. When I made you that pledge? I meant every word. You know how I feel, Lia. I have shown you over and over again. I would gladly give up my life to save you.”

My heart wanted so badly to believe him but I was still afraid that my desperate mind had conjured this up.

“Do you feel the connection between us?” he asked in that growly voice that made my insides flutter and shake.

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