[This post is from Matt’s point of view.]
“He’ll threaten you,” Hecate said softly. “We both know that he will.”
“We both know why that’s a bad idea.”
She choked on a laugh. “It certainly won’t end well for him.”
There was no certainty in her voice to back up the quip, though, not the way Matt felt like there might have been, should have been before that morning. He stared at her as she leaned against the casement of the bedroom window, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Rain had begun to fall outside, a storm sweeping in from across the lake. He could hear the rumbles of thunder in the distance.
Appropriate, that, he’d thought.
He sat on the edge of the bed, heart feeling like lead in his chest. Her fear was a huge, hulking thing, dark and real and larger than the two of them, so powerful he could feel it pressing down on him, could almost taste it. And yet, for all of his efforts, for how powerful and real it was, he couldn’t seem to touch it.
I just want her to be okay.
“I’m just worried about what he’ll do to you,” Matt said, then stood up to light a lamp as the room started to grow almost too dark to see. “I’m already worried by what I’m seeing.”
She tensed, glaring at him. He met her gaze steadily and her jaw went slack. She looked away again, staring out the window at the approaching storm.
“I love you,” she said simply, resting her head against the glass. “He was like the ones that broke you, once. I won’t watch that happen again.”
“And I won’t let him twist you into something you don’t want to be.” He went to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned back against him, eyes squeezing shut.
“I’m not even sure what that is anymore, Matt.”
“We’ll figure it out together,” he said, then kissed her ear. She sighed.
“How can you care about me so much?” she whispered.
Matt just shook his head, his arms tightening slightly. “I don’t know,” he admitted softly. “I just do. I stopped trying to figure it out because it doesn’t matter.” He rested his cheek against her hair. “Maybe there really is a such thing as soul-mates, two halves of a whole that could search forever without finding each other—unless they do.” He tilted his head and she opened her eyes, looking up at him for a moment.
“Do you really believe that?” she asked.
“I don’t see why else losing Cíar would have hurt you so much, why you would have spent all the centuries after that trying to fill that hole in your soul.”
Hecate stayed quiet for a few long moments before a faint smile crossed her face. “You’re amazing, Matthew Astoris.”
One corner of his mouth curled upward. “I think you bring that out in me.”
She nestled her head in the crook between his shoulder and neck. “Maybe we really can do it. Maybe we can…can outsmart him or just tell him to go screw himself.”
“At the very least, we can try.”
Joining him sure as hell isn’t an option—but we’ll do what we have to do.
It’s about surviving and protecting the people we love.
Matt pressed another kiss to her temple. “I won’t let him hurt you,” he promised her quietly. “I promise.”
It was a promise he meant to keep.
