Page 70 of Spears and Shadows (Defenders of the Light)
“There have been a few other women,” he finally admitted. “Does that bother you?”
“I honestly would find it a bit weird if there weren’t,” Nora snorted, but she squeezed his hand to reassure him and returned to inspecting the ring.
“We really had a thing for the star motif, didn’t we?” she commented, thinking of the silver constellations emblazoned on the canopy over their heads, as well as the tattoo of stars encircling his bicep that she had traced with her fingers and lips last night.
Adam’s warm breath stirred her hair as he nodded against the back of her head.
“It was sort of a theme in our relationship. We loved stargazing together. That’s why my sword has that inscription on it. You gave it to me as a gift.”
“We owe a lot to those weapons.”
Adam kissed her neck and murmured against her skin in agreement. “You know, stars turned out to be the perfect symbol for our love, even now. The stars give their light to the earth even though they have long since burnt out. That was you for me. You were the light that guided me through the dark parts of my life, even long after you had died.”
Nora turned in his arms and found his eyes as bright as her own. She raised his hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles in acknowledgement.
“So will you start wearing your ring on your left hand again?”
“No.” Adam paused, considering. “Not yet anyways. I want to do this whole thing right. Give you the relationship and romance you deserve, not just rush through it because you know the truth now. I want to get to know every bit of who you are now, your past, and what makes you so intoxicatingly special.”
“Maybe this whole reincarnation thing is a blessing,” she mused. “How beautiful is it that we get to fall in love over and over again? We get so many first kisses, so many chances to remember what makes us so right for each other. Falling for you… I’m glad I get to do it more than once.”
“I could fall in love with you forever,” Adam vowed.
“Tell me about the first life we spent together.”
“Well, I know I was hopelessly in love with you when I watched you temporarily blind a guy in the courtyard for being an ass.”
* * *
Leavingthe sunlight drenched Sanctuary and walking through the portal back into the city shouldn’t have been a shock, considering Nora had been forewarned of the raging blizzard. Still, her body immediately tensed up at the frigid wind whipping at her hair and tugging her scarf from her face. Adam put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side to share his body heat. She turned to look up at him with a smile, and the swirling snowflakes caught in her upturned eyelashes.
They stepped out from under the Bean to catch the bus back to her apartment. She had known that she could not stay in the happy bubble of the Sanctuary forever, and tomorrow she would go back to the mundanity of her day-to-day life. When Adam had offered to come back to her apartment with her, she had been grateful, as if she were able to bring some of the magic from the Sanctuary back to her home life with her.
She was strangely nervous to have Adam in her space for the first time. Her chest warmed, thinking about him among all her books and art and favorite belongings. The butterflies in the pit of her stomach reminded her that their relationship was still in its infancy despite all they had been through.
As she began to think about picking up some tea to keep at her apartment, her phone buzzed in her pocket. Fishing it out, she struggled to unlock the screen in her chunky mittens.
She frowned at the screen when she finally got it open.
“What is it?” Adam inquired, spotting the furrow between her brows.
“I have two voicemails from Odelle. I hate that I don’t get service in the Sanctuary. We’re supposed to have dinner tonight, and I hope she isn’t cancelling. I was going to tell her everything, and well, after this, that seems like something that should be done sooner rather than later.”
Adam nodded, stepping to the side so Nora could pause while she opened her voicemail. Her heart quickened inexplicably under her coat, wondering what was important enough that Odelle would have called multiple times.
As she got the voicemails open and raised the phone to her ear, she froze. She felt as cold as the ice under her feet as she listened through both messages. Adam’s voice asking her what was wrong sounded distant as the phone slipped from her numb fingers and fell to the pavement below.
