Page 213 of A Curse On Black Lake
“The hell it wasn’t,” she snaps.
“We could have found another way.”
“It was the only way, Killian. It had to be someone who loves a Radcliffe. I would do it again if it meant saving you, and I know you would have done it for me because you love me,” she rasps and takes another deep breath.
I stare down at her in shock, and she smiles sadly, rubbing her hand over my beard.
“You love me?” I ask her.
“I have for a while…” she says.
“Why didn’t you say it?” I need to know why. I need to understand why she was okay with my heart being ripped out every second of the day she didn’t tell me, despite the fact I could see it.
“I knew it would make it harder for you to move on, and I had no interest in prolonging your suffering.”
I wiggle my nose trying to ignore the burn, but I can’t. I pin my lips together as the tears fall silently on their own, and lean my forehead against hers. “What makes you think I wouldn’t suffer if I lost you?” I rasp.
“You know why,” she whispers.
“If you died, I wouldn’t have had much to live for anymore. You don’t get it, do you? You’re my anchor. You showed me how to live again despite your own grief. If I lost you, I would have died of a broken heart.”
“I never wanted to break your heart,” she says.
“Say it again,” I tell her.
“I love you,” she says and wipes a tear from my cheek.
“Kiss me,” she commands.
I slam my mouth against hers, so relieved that she’s alive it rights my jagged soul.
She pulls away, taking deep breaths.
“Sorry,” I mutter.
She shakes her head and wraps her arms around my neck. “If anyone takes my breath away, I want it to be you,” she says.
“Can you stand?” I ask her.
She nods into my neck.
We get to our feet and look at Eddy floating in the water.
“Can you help me get him out?” Wyatt asks.
I snap my head to the left. I forgot he was here.
Eliana pales. Dipping my finger under her chin, I look down at her. “Be right back.”
She takes a few steps from the water, glancing between me and the body in the lake.
We wade in and lift Edward out of the clear water, laying him in the dirt.
Wyatt glares at his body.
“It was a good shot, Wyatt.”
He doesn’t look up, still staring at the clear lake.
