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“No,” he says firmly. “I’m not going anywhere, because Iknowyou can finish this. Right here.”

I feel tears gathering again at my eyes, blurring my vision, and fear grips my chest, making me feel cold. “What if I can’t?’ I whisper. “What if I can’t save you? What if Ifail?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he hums, kissing me again gently.

“How can you say that?”

“Because,” he tells me. “It won’t change how much I love you.”

A tiny gasp escapes me, the terror rattling around in my rib cagemorphing into a hot pressure that seems to fill me up like water in a bowl, so quickly and somuchthat I feel overflowing with it.

“You do?”

“Aye,” he chuckles. “Even your awful singing.”

A watery laugh escapes me, and I reach out to hold his wrists even as his hands still cradle my face.

“I love you too.”

I know with certainty at that moment that I absolutely mean it. Of course I love him. What better explanation is there for this all-consuming need I feel to be near him, to make sure that I’m able to for years to come?

“You can do it, love,” he encourages. “I know you can.”

I nod heavily as I lift my hands from his wrists, bringing them to his cheeks to hold him in the same way he’s still holding me. I rest my forehead against his as I will my breathing to slow, taking deep, heavy breaths and blowing them out as I shut my eyes tight.

At first, I don’t know where to begin. I can feel the energy still humming around me, like it knows it’s not done with me yet. I gather it closer like a cloak, pulling it until it covers and surrounds us. I let my mind fill with thoughts of Sorcha, of my family, of all the things that led us here, remembering what she wrote in Tavish’s journal.

—one day one such lass shall walk this world, hold my magic, and be given a chance to forgive. Only should she take it, will my curse be no more.

“You lied to me,” I whisper, remembering what drove me from him in the first place, what caused me to leave him all alone.

He nods slowly, his thumb brushing across my cheek. “Aye, I did,” he answers. “And if you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it right.”

I feel a pulsing in the air, a thrumming that I can almost hear—and reach for it in my mind, almost able to imagine the warmth of it under my fingertips. The light continues to die with every second, and yet when I open my eyes, the space around us seems to glow with an otherworldly luminescence.

I imagine a hand resting gently against the crown of my head, a warm, encouraging touch that feels like one I know, even if it isn’t actually there.

Sorcha.

I can feel her here, and emotion swells inside me as a strange melancholy seizes me, realizing I can never know her. That I can never thank her for what she’s given me.

Oddly enough, it almost feels like she might know.

I bring my mouth to Lachlan’s in a barely there kiss, urging that warmth, that light, to pour into him, to rush through every part of him, casting its glow on all the darkest parts of him and leaving only him in their wake.

I smile as a swelling sense of calm rises up in me, and I can feel it, all that’s left to do.

“I forgive you,” I tell him.

He meets me with equal fervor when I kiss him more deeply, his strong arms wrapping around me and molding me to him as that humming energy builds and builds andbuildsbefore finally—all is quiet.

It takes me several seconds to stop kissing him, just so happy that he’s here, that he’s okay, but when we finally break apart—I just know. I can feel it.

The curse is no more.

We both turn to watch the last light of the sun sink below the horizon, and when it’s completely gone, leaving us in nothing but the dim rays of the moonlight—I see Lachlan’s eyes swim with tears. Asob escapes him as he crushes me against him once more, burying his face in my throat as his shoulders shake with the weight of his emotion.

“Thank you,” he whispers. “Thank you.”