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His hair was shorter, less unruly than it’d been the last time I saw him. There was color in his face—true color.
He grinned, lips curving into a smile I’d kissed over and over again.
“Hello, grá.”
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t—couldn’t think. Disbelief made my knees knock together, sent my palms curling into fists.
“What is this?” I rasped, staring at him. “This isn’t funny.” Tears sprung to my eyes. I looked to my friends who were all already crying. “This is a joke, right?”
Wolfe took one step forward and I took one back, putting more space between us.
The scent of cloves hit me first, then the fresh bite of salt air, the crackling embers of a fire, and cinnamon.
“Please don’t,” I croaked. “Please.”
He came around the table anyway, jacket open to reveal a navy blue sweater and jeans.
“Avery.” That voice. The thick accent, the rumble of it working through his chest.
If I closed my eyes, I felt it against my mouth, my throat, the skin of my hips. It was a voice I’d know anywhere in the world.
I pinched myself hard, thumb and forefinger twisting into the skin of my arm.
“You died,” I whispered. “I—I saw you. I watched you.”
He nodded, expression solemn. “I know you did.”
I shook my head, tears dislodging. “I’m dreaming, aren’t I?” I asked, unable to tear my eyes off him. “I have to be.”
“You’re awake.” His smile fell and his hand brushed mine. A zap of electricity went up my arm. Real. This was real.
“This—this is impossible,” I mumbled.
He took a step closer. Then another, until his chest was nearly flush against mine.
He lifted his hand, gently setting it on the curve of my cheek. He brushed a tear away with his thumb.
“Is it so hard to believe,” he asked, voice rough, “that I belong here? With you?”
“How?” I demanded. “How are you here right now?”
He touched the corner of my mouth, eyes trained only on me.
“It wasn’t my home. I made a mistake. For the longest time I thought that if I crossed, I’d find peace. I would return home. I would find my family.”
Horror ripped through me. “Were they not—were they not there?”
His smile was tipped in grief. “No, they were. They all were.”
I didn’t understand. “Then why—”
“Because you, Avery Eden, are my home. You are my family. You loved me into being—into life. Even there, I could not take my eyes off you. I spent my days longing for you, watching you, and I—I knew. I knew I could never belong anywhere else.”
I curled my hands into the sleeves of his sweater. “Royan.”
He exhaled roughly. “I was offered a choice. To stay or…to return. To fight my way back to you. There was never a choice for me, Avery. It was always going to be you. I clawed myself from my grave with only your name in my mouth.”
I blinked at him through my tears.
