my head.
He looked me right in the eye. “These gold lines on our faces…they mean…they mean we are soulmates.”
Chapter Nineteen
Saffie
“These gold lines on our faces…they mean…they mean we are soulmates.”
I gasped. WHAT?
Riah stepped closer. “I told you…I felt everything you did. Always have.”
My eyes watered. Can this be?
“This wasn’t part of the plan…” he looked down at the ground and then back up at me. “But the truth is I fell in love with you on December 5th 1691, the moment we met outside Bridget Bishop’s home surrounded by snow. My heart has been yours since I learned your name, since I heard your voice. Since that first smile took my breath away.”
Tears poured down my face like rivers.
“I have loved you for three-hundred-twenty-seven years. That night you appeared on the wharf?” He cringed and shook his head. His cheeks flushed and his eyes looked wild. “I had not seen the real you in so long that when I did…I fell apart. And then the cops interrogated you outside Landreia’s shop…on the anniversary of the night we met—
“In the same exact spot, where Bridget Bishop’s home was,” I heard myself whisper.
Riah nodded, smiled. “For the first time since we met, you wanted me back. You came for me and I…I did not have the strength or the heart to tell you no.”
“The kiss…the Yule ball…that’s what you were trying to tell me…”
“I was trying to tell you that I love you with every single fiber of my being but that we were not free to be together. I had to do my job. We could not let this realm die because of my love for you.”
I was crying harder. I didn’t care. He loved me. Riah loves me. All of my wildest dreams were coming true right in front of me.
He pressed his palm to his chest. “But I swear I did not know we were soulmates.”
“A fae’s first kiss…” I whispered.
Riah nodded. “If I had known you were my soulmate I never would have left you in the dark. I would have told you the truth regardless of the risks. I hated every moment of your curse. It broke me. Every day. It shattered me to keep the truth from you…but I had to. For your safety. I hadn’t expected it, never could have dreamed of it. For three-hundred-twenty-seven years I waited and hoped that one day you might feel what I do…and then to find you are my soulmate. All this time.”
I just stared at him. I was overwhelmed with emotion. My heart was so full it was going to burst. I was ugly crying and sniffling. I tapped my chest. “What about…what about the witch mark—”
“From what I’ve witnessed over these centuries, the witch soulmate glyph reveals itself once the ritual has been completed.”
Oh. I looked down at my hand and tried to imagine those vines covering it.
“I love you, Saraphina. With every part of me.”
I wanted to say so much but words would not come out.
“Can you forgive me or is it too late? Have I hurt you too much?” He was flustered as he shook his head and pushed his hair back. “I can give you space. I can give you time. I’ll bring you to The Coven myself, make sure you’re safe, and then I’ll leave you…”
What? Leave me? My entire body went ice cold at the idea of him leaving me. Because the truth was that I felt everything he did. For as long as he had. I’d fallen for him that very first night looking for Olli. I’d accidentally given this boy my heart and then never got it back.
And then I was running at him. I jumped and threw myself at him. He caught me again, but this time there was no armor in the way. It was just us. He stumbled back and then we were falling to the ground. He gasped in surprise as his back hit the ground.
I pressed my hands into the dirt beside his head and pulled back to meet his wide, gold eyes. The heat from his bare chest burned through my dress. My own filled with tears and my breaths hitched. “I love you, Riah.”
His breath left him in a rush and swept across my face. “Saraphina—”
“Since the night we met.”
He cupped my face in both his hands.
“Since the first time you said my name.”
He closed his eyes and cringed like I’d hurt him. He wound his hands through my messy curls and dragged