His jaw clenched. He couldn’t have felt more cut up if Justine had taken her knife to his insides. “But I forgave you for something you didn’t do.”
“You didn’t know that, which makes it all the more precious to me. You genuinely forgave me. In fact, it sounds to me like you tried everything you could do to prove it wasn’t true.” She scrubbed her face with the back of one hand, her mouth turned down in an unhappy bow. “Tell me what the woman in the photos looked like.”
He didn’t want to go there, but her words took him back to the moment he pulled them out of the manila envelope. The images were burned into his mind. Reluctantly, he said, “She looked like you.”
Her chin shook. “How long was her hair?”
“It was the length of your hair. It fell down her back, just like…” His eyes narrowed suddenly. “Why would you ask that?”
She laid a hand against his cheek. “Because I’m about to accuse my sister of doing something, and I don’t know if I can forgive her for it.”
“Oh, fuck me,” he growled. As much as he had obsessed over what had happened, he had never considered that. “Everything pointed to you.”
“I know.” Her eyes reddened again. “Someone put effort into making that happen, didn’t they?”
Quiet footsteps sounded outside in the hall. Gregoire said telepathically, Sir, I’m very sorry to bother you.
Turning his head toward the door, he asked, What is it?
First sentinel Graydon is here. Should I tell him that you and Miss Melisande are unavailable?
While he was tempted to say yes, Graydon had done a great deal for them in the last two days. Julian pressed a kiss to Melly’s forehead and told her, “Graydon’s downstairs. I need to have a word with him. Would you like to come, or should I go down by myself?”
Her expression changed. “I’ll absolutely come down too. I need to thank him in person for everything he did.”
“Okay.” Switching to telepathy, he said to Gregoire, Please tell him we’ll be down in ten minutes.
Very good, sir. I’ve placed a few clothes for Miss Melisande in front of the door, along with a replacement phone for you.
Thank you.
As his attendant’s quiet footsteps receded, he and Melly looked at each other. Her loose braid had slipped out a little, and gentle curls framed her face. He brushed one back, marveling at the softness of her hair.
“I think it was worth getting kidnapped,” she told him.
He raised his eyebrows. “Really? In spite of everything? The fear, the danger, and if what you believe is true, finding out about your sister?”
“Well, I’m not going to deny it, some of it really hurts right now. I need to hear the truth directly from Bailey, and I need to find out if my mom was involved in any of it. But in the end, it’s so much better to know the truth about something rather than living a lie.” She tilted her head. “And then there’s you and me.”
You and me. Not that long ago, he never would have conceived of saying those words.
“You better be sure about this,” he said. “Because I’m not going to let you go again. I’m never going to doubt you. I may not know anything else about what’s going to happen, but I know that much is true.”
A slow, sweet smile broke over her face. It turned a touch wry, which was purely Melly. “You can hold on to me as tight as you need, because I’ll be holding on to you just as tightly. I’m okay with the future being an uncertain place. We’ll figure things out. Answers to questions always come with time. But I know one thing, and I have to tell you right now – I am not going to live in Evenfall. I considered it for a while before, but that ship has sailed, soldier. There is too much drama that comes out of that zip code.”
A ghost of a laugh shook through him. “Don’t I know it.”
He pulled her close for a deep kiss. It quickly turned urgent. He fell into the dark intimacy of her mouth while she grasped the back of his neck and arched to get closer.
As her breath shuddered against his lips, he forced himself to pull back. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “We have time now. We’re going to get all the time we didn’t get before, and then some. And we will, by God, carve a niche for ourselves out of the universe somehow. I’ll fight the world to see that it happens, and damn anybody who tries to get in our way.”
She let out a deep sigh, and the tight grasp at the back of his head eased. “I’ll be fighting right by your side,” she whispered. She slipped her legs out of his lap and stood. “I need to freshen up before I go down.”
He rose to his feet. “Want me to wait for you?”
“No, that’s okay. I don’t want to keep Graydon waiting any longer than necessary. You go ahead. I’ll be right there.”
“All right.”