Page 126 of The Souls Harvest
“I gave it to you. And I would do it again if that’s the only way for you to return to me, a hundred times again.”
I blink furiously, tears running down my face, wetting his shirt. I sob like a child, unable to speak but half words, undefined sounds of pain, joy, relief and fear.
He keeps stroking my hand in silence, letting me take everything in—the deepest meaning of his confession, the worrying realisation of it.
“It’s still in the caves…I’ve never given it back,” I mumble against him, pressing my right cheek against his chest, staring at the lake.
I look up; his sweet, resigned smile breaks my heart instantly. “Itwas the only way to convince Roden that you tried, obeyed his orders, and kept yourself safe. This is why you hid my soul in those caves. The idea that you made me suffer was enough for him. And when he found out the shards of soul you brought back to him weren’t mine, he let you continue because he gloated at seeing us trying to work against him.”
I bite my lower lip, closing my eyes at the image of it.
“But you didn’t.” He pinches my chin lightly, and I find the courage to look at him again. “You could never hurt me. I’m happy for you to take what’s left of my soul because, even when I’m no more, part of me will always breathe, laugh, and love. In here…”
His right hand lowers to my heart, hovering above it, but I pull it against me as he falls silent, studying my movements.
Warm vibrations hum and thrum, flowing inside me from where our bodies connect.
“How have I forgotten about you?” I mumble.
“You didn’t. Not completely. Roden doesn’t have the power to control you like he thinks. I know you could see me. Feel me.” Kris bows his head, a lock of his hair tickling my brow.
“Only when I was sleeping, when my mind wasn’t fighting to keep your memory away. Because if I remembered while in Libera…”
“Roden would have seen it too,” he finishes my sentence.
An uncontrollable feeling of loss spreads through me, and I snap my head up. “How much have you got left?” I break the contact to move back and take his beautiful face in fully.
“Enough to be here with you one last time. To hold you one last time.”
He follows every word with one small step towards me.
“To kiss you one last time.” His lips graze my cheek. His smell overpowers me, sending my mind spiralling into lovely darkness.
“To tell you one last time that I—”
“No, don’t—” I stand on my tiptoes to press a finger on his mouth. “I’m not taking whatever’s left of your soul, even if only to keep it safe. This is madness. There must be another way.”
“Don’t you think we’ve never tried before?”
“We can try again.”
Kris sighs through his nose, gathering my hands and kissing one, then the other. “July, things are happening faster, and I believe Roden has a plan to strike harder this time. We don’t know how much time we have left, but I don’t want to waste even a minute of our last life together talking about what-ifs.”
My brain goes blank. Then starts working again. Fast. Spinning.
In the darkness surrounding us, his eyes almost glow, light green and gold, alive, hungry, when he tilts his head, closing the distance between our faces.
And my brain finally finds some peace.
“I’m sorry to interrupt…this, but there’s something you need to see. Someone,actually. She’s outside the fences, shouting for Tabs to come out, and I’m afraid she’ll remain there until her lungs can hold. Also—she holds one of my frogs hostage.”
I wiggle free from Kris’ arms and, patting my face with the backof my hands, I smirk at Mack. In the cold moonlight, the scar above his lip twitches as he looks down at his hands and the grass beneath his feet.
“It’s okay, Mack.” I pat his shoulder. “Do we know what this stranger wants from Tabs? Does she look in danger—or threatening?”
Mack shakes his head, his friendly smile back where it legitimately belongs. “She looksrough, but I swear those orange eyes pierced through the cameras. She scares me and Rary.”
“Rary?”
