[This post is from Matt’s point of view.]
Hecate leaned against him for a moment as she fell silent to let her words sink in, her fingers tight in his. Her breathing was ragged—more ragged than his, which made him even more worried.
“What are you going to do?” he whispered.
“Whatever I have to,” she whispered back, glancing at him for the barest moment before turning her attention back toward the advancing line. “It’ll be worth it, somehow.”
“You said it would drain you,” Matt murmured. “What you just did, bringing us here.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“Will you?”
“Matt.” There was a desperate note in her voice as she said his name, as if she was begging him to stop asking questions she didn’t want to answer, to stop saying things she didn’t want to face. Her knuckles turned white where she gripped his hand and he sucked in an uneven breath.
She won’t make it through this unless I do something.
“Take what you need,” he said. She looked at him sharply, her expression stricken.
“What?”
“From me,” he said. “Take what you need from me, croílár na amach mo anam. Do it.”
“I can’t—”
“Hecate.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. The line had halted, the drum cadence had ended. Whoever was in charge had heard her and was apparently trying to decide what to do about it.
Whatever happened next, Matt was certain it wouldn’t be pretty.
“You need to do it,” he told her, reaching for the blade sheathed at her side. Without warning, he’d freed the weapon and slashed it across her palm.
Her eyes went wide. “Matt—”
He shook his head, running the weapon’s blade across his palm, neatly bisecting the scar already there. His gaze steady, he grasped her wounded hand with his, squeezing tightly.
“As long as love lasts,” he said, his voice firm.
Hecate’s jaw was slack, her mouth open slightly as she stared at him.
“As long as love lasts,” Matt repeated, his heart hammering at twice its normal speed.
After what felt like an eternity, she echoed, “For as long as love lasts.”
A jolt ran through him, one that he knew she felt as clearly as he did. It was a step that she’d never taken before and he knew he’d never done it in any life before this one. It had been waiting for this moment—he knew that, too.
Still holding tight to his hand, she leaned in and kissed him fiercely. He wrapped his arm around her waist and held her for only a moment before letting go.
“Do what you need to do,” he murmured, tasting the salt of her tears against his lips.
Hecate nodded hard. “I will. Get back beyond the wall. I’ll come when this is over.”
“I love you,” Matt told her, the thumb of his uninjured hand brushing along her cheek.
“Not as much as I love you,” she said, then turned away.
The drums began again.
