“I am sorry I did not think of it before, but you have it now.” I kissed his hand. “When you need me, I’ll be right here.”

He groaned and dragged me against his chest. “You are not supposed to be here,” he whispered against my hair.

“I do not care. I need to hold you. My heart cannot handle this.” I looked up, resting my chin on his chest. “Just for a little while, let me stay with you.”

His eyes widened.

“Let me give you a memory to hold on to while you wait.”

His face fell—-and then his lips were on mine. He smelled like dirt and smoke. His lips tasted like a bonfire. He kissed me with desperate passion, with a hunger he could not satisfy. His hands fisted my hair. The world was spinning around us, but I just held on tight and gave myself over to it.

He broke off with a gasp. His lips were red and puffy, his cheeks pink. “You cannot stay long⁠—”

“Just a little while.”

He nodded then took my hand in his and led me into the cliff wall where he’d emerged from. Once we stepped around the piece of cliff he’d slid to the side, I realized it was a cave. There was a small little fire flickering on the far end, though the space wasn’t big at all. The ceiling of the cave was barely tall enough for Everest to stand at full height. The cave rumbled. dirt rained from the cracks above me. I glanced over my shoulder just as the last sliver of light vanished. Everest had closed us inside the cave. Not that I was afraid, I had never been afraid of him.

Guess I know why now.

Eight hundred years but my soul remembered him.

The cave was nearly pitch black, if not for the glow from the fire casting light on his face I would have not known he was there. “Why are you hiding in a cave? It’s so dark in here.”

“Darkness is my oldest friend,” he said softly.

It might have been my imagination, or perhaps it was me, but I could have sworn his hand was shaking. He led me through the dark. The cave rumbled again, sending more dirt and rocks down on top of us—-and then bright daylight blasted me in the eyes. I cursed and buried my face against his back.

He let out a little chuckle. “You walk headstrong into the dark then hide from the light."

“Is that not like me?” Butterflies filled my stomach at the thought that maybe I wasn’t like the me he knew.

“If I were still doubting you were really you—-which I am not—-but if I were . . .” He stopped walking then pulled me around to the front of him. He smiled down at me. “That doubt would be gone now.”