Page 187 of Fallen Nocturne

Then the truth hits me.

If she is here, she must be dead.

“What are you doing here, little fawn?” I breathe into her hair.

“You don’t get to leave me,” she sobs against my chest. “We just found each other again. We just…”

Her voice breaks.

I pull back enough to really look at her. She’s exhausted. Ash and tears streak her pale face. Her clothes are torn. Blood smears the scrapes across both hands, and her eyes are swollen and red from crying.

She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

“I love you,” she says, throwing her arms around my neck and pulling me down to her. “I love you, Svenn. I got my memories back. All of them. Everything we had and everything we were. I couldn’t let you go.”

I cannot bear another word. I close the distance between us and press my mouth to hers. My hand catches the back of her neck to kiss her harder. She answers it without hesitation, her body pressed against mine like she’s trying to merge us into one person.

“You came for me,” I whisper against her lips because I can’t quite believe it.

“Of course I did,” she whispers back, her hands tightening around me.

“Well, this is touching.” Death is watching us with an expression that’s mildly amused and wholly irritated. He is one of the Un. I recognize the danger.

“I found him,” Rhianelle says, facing him bravely. “You have to let us go. That was the deal.”

“Oh, the deal,” Death says, tilting his head. “I said if you found him, you could take him back. I never specified when. I could make you wait a century or a millennium. I could make you both wait here forever.”

Rhianelle’s face falls for just a moment. Then she turns and buries herself against my chest, her arms winding around me. I feel her exhale slowly.

“All right,” she says quietly. “Then I’ll stay. I don’t mind. I found him. That’s enough.”

Death’s expression hardens. “Unfortunately, we have a problem.”

I move in front of Rhianelle again, shielding her with my body. “What problem?”

“The problem is that Rhianelle doesn’t belong here,” Death says slowly, his expression turning serious. “It’s not her time. She needs to return to the land of the living.”

My eyes widen.

She is alive.

Relief crashes through me. Then comes the pain, because if she is alive, she cannot stay with me. She has to return. She has to live.

“No,” Rhianelle says immediately. She doesn’t turn to look at him and burrows deeper into my chest. “No, I’m not leaving.”

“Rhianelle—” Death starts.

Death looks at me over the top of her head, his pale eyes expectant. He wants me to talk sense into her.

I do not give a fuck what Death wants. But I care about what Rhianelle deserves, even if giving it to her means losing her again.

“He is right,” I say, even though the words feel like knives in my throat. “Rhianelle, you need to live. You spent centuries trapped in the realm of the gods in Astefar. You have barely had the chance to live for yourself.”

“No,” she says again and her grip on me tightens. “No. I’m not leaving you.”

She’s shaking now, her whole body trembling against mine.

I wrap my arms around her, holding her close. “Sweetheart—”