She’d wanted to for years, really, but she’d never dared to let herself think it before. Now, though, after knowing what the world would be like without Wesley by her side, it was all Tavia could think about. She wanted to feel him pressed against her. Feel his smile on her neck. She was hungry for him, like the trees hungered for the rain and the stars hungered for the night.

They had never spoken about the thing that existed between them, as broken and complicated as it had become, and Tavia wasn’t sure what words she could say to put it back together in all the perfect ways.

What if she ruined it somehow?

“I missed you,” Wesley said.

Lightning cracked across the sky.

“Me too,” she said.

Wesley’s hand was warm under hers and he turned it so that their fingers locked together. He squeezed her hand tightly.

“No matter what happens, I’m not going to leave you again,” Wesley said.

Tavia shivered as the rain soaked through to her toes.

She didn’t speak, for fear her voice might not sound like her own. For fear that if she started, she might not be able to control everything that came spilling out.

“Do you know why I love Creije so much?” Wesley asked.

Tavia shook her head. “Good booze?” she guessed, gesturing to the Cloverye.

“Creije is the city that showed me magic and wonder,” he said. “It’s the city that shaped my soul. But most of all, it’s the city that gave me you.”

Tavia’s throat was painfully dry.

“If we don’t die, then you’re going to really regret embarrassing yourself with that speech,” she said.

She laughed nervously, but Wesley’s face didn’t change.

He brought his thumb to her mouth and swiped a raindrop from her lip. “I’ve never regretted any moment with you,” he said.

She hadn’t either, even the bad ones that Tavia had once thought would be so easy to throw away. Now she wanted to cling to each of them.

Wesley didn’t kiss her, but he did keep his hand tangled in hers, and after a few breaths, after they stared at each other for so long that Tavia could see her reflection in his dark eyes, Wesley turned to the ledge and looked back out at the army below.

They sat there like that, in the quiet of the forest, with the wet rain trailing down their legs and the bottle sitting between them, and their hands tied together. Neither of them spoke again and neither of them needed to. Tavia hadn’t known what the right words to say were, but Wesley always did, and he’d said them when she wasn’t brave enough to.

For the first time, Tavia felt like things would be okay.

She felt like the world wasn’t ending after all.

16

ZEKIA