His lip trembled at her refusal but he nodded and turned back to the sea, to the sunkissed dawn, the skies bleeding blackness and the stars hiding once more beneath the curtain of light.
She reached a hand in the air to touch him but let it fall.
Losing him. She was losing him. Would lose him. And even if he stayed for a thousand years, he would hate her.
“You must understand, my love,” she began, trying to keep the pleading from her voice. “You came here for a reason. I built this place for a reason. I ran from horror and pain and so have you. I found this place and made it into a haven for those lost and broken, like you.
“Like me.”
She took a breath to steady her voice, to keep from collapsing. “This place is ours. I did not know it then, but I made this place for you. You could not know it then, but you left home to find me here. This is love, my heart. This is fate. The threads of our lives are bound to one another, twisted round each other. I am yours and you are mine. Not only for now, but always. If I had to live again, I would make all the same choices, go through all the same pains and horrors because I would know they’d bring me back to you. And I know it breaks your heart, the way you cry over them, over what you’ve lost, but look at what you’ve gained. Look at all that you can be with me.
“The two of us, forever. The two of us together. I was born for you and you were born for me, my love. Our whole lives have led to this moment. Here, together. The rest of our lives.”
His back straightened as she spoke but he did not move. Her words hung in the air between them and slowly, he turned to her with a smile.
“I didn’t choose this.”
“Nor did I. Nor does anyone, my love. It’s all fate. It’s love.”
“You could choose to let me go.”
She rushed to him then and took his big hands in her little ones. Kneeling before him, she looked up into his haggard, sleepless eyes. “I will never let you go. Not ever.”
His smile faltered and he trembled slightly but he nodded. His hands limp in hers, but he pulled her into an embrace, and he shook, crying.
Love. Crying for love.
She knew it for it matched her own weeping as she clung to him.
They had been through so much. Lost everything. Been hurt and desecrated. But they found love. They found hope and a life.
“I will never let you go.” And then she sang to him and drew him back into the cave, into the deepdark.