To each of us in our own way, that line keeps us and everyone around us safe. When the demon rises, and we can’t beat it back any other way, we repeat that line. Sometimes, when it was particularly bad for one of us, we all sat in a circle and chanted that line from sundown until sunrise.”
“Olen wäkeva—félért ku vigyázak,” she read. “What is the exact interpretation and why is it important?”
“‘Staying strong for her.’” He glanced over his shoulder again and this time his gaze collided with hers. He didn’t look away. “For you. I stayed strong for you. When all else failed, I knew I couldn’t give in because you were somewhere, in this time or another, and you were more important than anything else to me. I might break under any other circumstances, but not as long as my lifemate might need me. I stayed strong for you.”
She pressed her lips together and then leaned in to brush a kiss over the scars. “I understand what you meant when we first met, and I refused to open my mouth. I’m so ashamed of that, Isai. I swear, I’ll try to be worthy of all that time you spent alone.”
“Don’t,” he said, keeping his voice as gentle as possible. “Really, Julija. I would have been leery as well, knowing your background. Forgive me for jumping to conclusions.”
She shook her head and pressed her forehead between his shoulder blades. “You don’t. Not ever. I don’t want you to apologize to me ever again for that. I won’t, either, if it makes you feel better, but knowing what you went through humbles me. I can barely comprehend it, let alone understand how you managed to survive it.”
He turned once more away from her, looking toward the sliver of a crack in the rock. They were going to have to move soon if he was going to pick up the trail of his brother. Iulian had the book somewhere in the mountains and he needed to recover it and if warranted, send his brother to the next life.
“The last line clearly says it all for every single one of us. We know what holds us to this earth. We know the importance of our lifemate.”
“Hängemért.” She’d murmured the word softly. “That means ‘for her,’ doesn’t it?”
“Such a simple word, but meaningful and beautiful. Hängemért. For her. That is everything, Julija. You are everything, and always will be to me. There will never be another, nor would I want there to be. As centuries went by, I became aware of you. Everything about you. The way we would fit together. The way your smile would be. The sound of your laughter. Your touch on my skin. The talks we would have, walking together, hand in hand. Each new idea that came into my mind made me realize the importance of you. The need to stay strong, to be honorable and to earn the right to be with you.”
“Isai.”
She’d whispered his name and he thought he felt the burn of tears dripping hotly down his back. He wouldn’t be surprised. His woman was emotional, and he found he liked it. He liked knowing she had a soft heart and that she showed her emotions when he could barely change expression.
“It is true, Julija. The more centuries that went by, the more I understood that my lifemate was to be cherished. Treasured. Put before all things.”
“I swear to you, I will do the same for you.”
He turned then and drew her into his arms. “This is new for us, but we will find our way,” he assured.
“We’re already in enough trouble just trying to find the book from hell, but now we’ve got my family hot on our heels.”
He pulled back to look down at her face. “Your choice of descriptions is always interesting to me.”
“I forget you’re really, really old.”
He heard the mischievous note in her voice and he dunked her before taking the long step that would put him on the other side of the pool. He sank down onto the seat. There was one more thing he wanted to get straight between them before they went chasing after the high mage’s spell book and his brother, who by all accounts hadn’t turned vampire but had stolen something important that threatened the Carpathian people. Worse, he’d brought the book to the United States, in close proximity to Sergey, who had slivers of Xavier in him.