“I’m forgetting everything that came before.” His eyes, vivid and sorrowful in the moonlight, glistened.
It only took her a second. “You’re forgetting me.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice deep and dark and so full of pain it hurt her head.
“Not your fault,” she managed.
Something hurt.
Pain, insidious and sharp, tunneled its way into her chest.
Her mind was like a can covered with nail holes, and her chaotic thoughts were seeping through all the rusty openings.
“Don’t fall apart,” he said. “Because no matter if I forget who you are, I’m never going to forget the feeling of loving you.”
Despair squeezed her, and she buried her face in his warm neck. “I don’t want to lose you again.”
“I’m always going to be part of you, sweet thing. That’s a truth you can carry with you. No matter what else happens.” He rubbed his thumb over her temple. “I’m always going to be in here.” Then he placed his palm on her scarred chest, over her heart. “And in here.”
He hesitated, as though he didn’t want to actually speak the words, but then he did. “Even if you go back.”
“God, Z.”
“Existing here, pining for you, for the crew…” His voice was hard, for a second, with anger. “It’s hell, Rune.” Then he tried to smile. “Without those memories, this place is only the edge of hell. I can learn to live with that.”
And she was glad for him.
Truly.
“I told stories,” he said. “Every night. To anyone who’d listen. I told them about you. About Shiv Crew. About who I was. The stories will live on even when I have no memory of them as anything more than imaginary tales.”
And it hurt him, that thought.
Even more, perhaps, than it hurt her.
“We’ll have this moment,” she said.
“Forever.”
“Z.” Her voice hurt her throat.
He sighed. “There’s a battle ahead.”
She nodded.
Oh yes, there was a battle ahead.
More than one.
She wanted to fall through the cracks of darkness she could see waiting past the creaky floorboards of her mind, but the pain wouldn’t let her.
And she couldn’t sleep, anyway. She couldn’t waste what time she had left with Z.
They held each other for the rest of the night.
When dawn arrived, she imagined she could already feel a difference in him.
His agony was a little less.
He smiled when he looked at her, and his eyes held something besides horror and misery and longing. They held joy.
“What’s this?” She traced her fingertips over a blue tattoo drifting in small, flowing cursive over his ribs. “You got a new tattoo.” Then she released an unintentional sob when she read the words.
Rune Alexander, the tattoo read.
Across his ribs.
Her name.
“Fuck,” she whispered.
He lay still beneath her caress, watching her.
“My Rune,” he murmured, finally, when she couldn’t talk. “My sweet thing. In all the worlds, there is only you.”
She put her lips against his warm, familiar skin, saying nothing. Just feeling his skin against hers. Inhaling his scent. Allowing herself to really grasp the fact that he was alive.
That would be enough.
It’d have to be.
“Z,” a quiet voice said, and Rune turned quickly toward the sound, snarling at the intrusion.
She didn’t want it to be over. Not yet.
“Blue,” Z said. He sat up and reached over to snag Rune’s hand. “This is Rune.”
Blue was aptly named. Everything about her was blue. Her short, dyed hair, her clothes, her eyes, even her lipstick.
And there was something in her gaze that made Rune grind her teeth—not with anger, but with jealousy.
Blue knew Z.
The girl stared calmly back at Rune, showing no fear. “I figured. We kept guard all night.”
She gave a quick motion with her blade and another woman stepped out of the trees and walked forward. She was plain, unassuming-looking. Flat. Until she looked at Rune, and there in her eyes was all the beauty and fire missing from her features.
“This is Nadaline,” Z said.
“Mad Nadaline,” Nadaline clarified, her voice bland but thick with a deep southern drawl.
Rune narrowed her eyes. “If you know who I am, then you’ll know there was no need to guard us.”
“Weren’t guarding you from enemies,” Nadaline said.
Blue pointed her chin at Z. “We were guarding him from you. Just in case.”
“From me?” Rune pulled away from Z and climbed to her feet, carefully, slowly. “You thought to guard him from me?”
“Relax, sweet thing,” Z said, standing as well. “It’s what they do.” He snatched his jeans off the ground, stepped into them, then handed Rune her clothes.
Blue shrugged, seemingly unimpressed by the danger of Rune. She looked at Z. “I need