Her eyes searched his. Searching, he knew, for the truth. A truth he should have told her so many times, so long ago.
Emotion tightened his throat. “Can you ever forgive me? Not just for that but for the way I reacted when I finally remembered? I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that. I shouldn’t have…” He brushed his hand against her soft, slim throat, closed his eyes, the memory of the way he’d treated her, the guilt from that hitting him right in the solar plexus.
Her soft hand brushed his cheek, brought his eyes open. “You didn’t hurt me. And there’s no forgiveness needed. In fact…” A smile turned up the corners of her lips, lips that weren’t quite as plump and perfect as he remembered. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d killed me that night. I deserved it.”
“No more killing,” he whispered. “My heart can’t take it. My heart can’t take anything but you.”
“Do you mean that? Because if you don’t…” She closed her eyes, opened them. “If you don’t want me anymore, I—”
He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her with everything he had in him. All the loss and heartache and emptiness he’d been carrying with him his whole life. The emptiness he hadn’t known was there because he was missing her.
“I want you,” he said, bringing both hands up to frame her face, feeling her silky hair slide between his fingers. “I’ve always wanted you.”
Her arms wound around his back and she moved into him, the heat from her body warming him all the way to his toes. She buried her head against his chest as he held her. Yeah, she was definitely shorter. And so damn perfect.
She sniffled. “I couldn’t go on the ship. It was so pretty, and the light called to me. I wanted to go, but…I couldn’t. I couldn’t get on.”
Her voice wavered. And as he pushed back and looked down, he realized just what she was talking about. “The Isles of the Blessed. You were on your way to Elysium. And you came back here? To me?”
She nodded.
He brought his hands back up to her face as disbelief rippled through him. “Why would you do that?”
“Because…I didn’t want to forget. I had this ache inside me, and it was growing. And I knew it would go away if I just got on the ship, but I…I couldn’t. I promised myself a long time ago that I’d never forget. I couldn’t let that go.”
The enormity of her sacrifice, of what she’d given up for him, nearly brought him to his knees. “Skyla…”
Her hands landed on his forearms. “I’m different, Orpheus. I know you can see it in my face, but I’m different…everywhere. It’s still me, it’s just…me before the Siren transformation. I know it’s not what you remember. It’s—”
“Oraios.” Beautiful.
“Really? But won’t you miss—?”
“Not for a second. Skyla, I’d want you even if you had a completely different body. Even if that body was part daemon.”
Emotions filled her eyes. Eyes that weren’t amethyst anymore but a soft, mottled green. Her natural eyes were green. As his daemon’s eyes had been.
“Your daemon’s gone,” she whispered.
“Thanks to you.”
“No, Orpheus.” Her hands tightened around his arms. “Thanks to you.”
Be greater. Her last words echoed in his head. He was. And with her, he could be even more.
“I can’t go back to the Sirens,” she whispered. “And when Zeus finds out the Fates sent me back, he won’t be happy.”
“I have a feeling Zeus is already unhappy. And news flash, female, you’re not going anywhere. You’re staying here with me.”
“Here?”
“Here.” He nodded to the glass windows. “Home.”
The darkening of her eyes told him she liked that. But when he moved in to kiss her once more, she stopped him with her fingers against his lips. “The Fates said I would have a blessed life, but my soul isn’t guaranteed a repeat ride on the white ship. Not unless I prove it again.”
It was his turn to grin. “Something tells me that won’t be a problem. Not this time.”
He leaned in, but she eased back once more. “And they said something about a curse. A soul-mate curse. You don’t know what they were talking about, do you?”
He froze millimeters from her mouth, glanced at the Argonaut markings on his forearms, and then chuckled. “That sneaky Fate. No wonder.”
When her brow lowered, he ran his thumb over her lips. Her sweet and tender lips. Lips he planned to sample and taste and lose himself in this and every night from here until their days’ ended—when they’d both be sailing on those white ships toward lands unknown, together. “Yeah, I might know. And trust me, it’s the best damn curse any scheming god ever came up with.”
She let him draw her face back to his. And in the cool wind, with the world dark around them and the fate of his brother, the Argonauts, and the future uncertain, one thing remained constant.
Her.
Through both his lives, through all the agonizing time in between, she was worth fighting for. She’d been worth dying for. She was the best thing in this world or the next worth living for.