Page 145 of The Darkness Between Us
My skin stays soft.
My pulse stays mine.
My heart… ispure.
Because all I’ve ever wanted—truly wanted—is to be loved the way I love her.
Asha’s eyes find mine, two lighthouses in stormy waters, and my heart stutters painfully.
I’d be so much better to her. She just doesn’t know it yet.
“River… please… don’t!” she shouts, her voice cracking.
But it drifts like wind through me. I don’t stop. I can’t.
For once, I’m doing something forme.
“You were never going to choose me, were you?” I say quietly.
She doesn’t respond. Her lips part, but nothing comes out. Her eyes just plead with mine—soft and desperate, but too late.
Ryder lunges toward me, but he looks distant, blurred, like a figure moving underwater.
A voice echoes through my mind, ancient and clear:
‘What is it you wish to do with this power?’
“I want Asha,” I whisper. “I want them to forget each other. I want everyone to forget. For her to love me. I want… to be loved byher.”
Power blooms in my chest like a supernova—heat, light, energy so potent it almost knocks me to my knees.
The voice hums, warm as sunlight:
‘To be loved is but the purest intention of them all.’
And the power consumes me.
Chapter Forty-Four
Asha’s POV
A blinding light ripples over us—so bright it sears through my eyelids—and my lungs seize as though something catastrophic is about to happen… something I can’t see, can’t name, can’t stop.
My lips part, ready to speak, but my mind is suddenly, terrifyingly blank.
The world comes back in fragments.
A figure stands beside me, the veins in his arm black as ink, his expression twisted in confusion. I blink at him, trying to place him—he feels familiar in the way a fading dream does, just out of reach.
Then my eyes drift past him and land on—
River.
And it’s like I’m seeing him for the very first time.
A fierce, inexplicable pull yanks at my chest. Before I can think, before I can question the sudden rush in my veins, I’m running—throwing myself into his arms. The moment his hands close around me, something inside me sings, warm and bright, like a long-missing puzzle piece snapping into place.
“I think I… love you,” I breathe, the words tumbling out without hesitation, without fear. I cling to him, arms tight around his torso, desperate and certain all at once.
He stiffens, then holds me tighter—so tight it almost hurts.
Shock flickers across his face, followed by something softer… something devastating.
“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”
