Page 80 of Dustwalker

Lara’s breath hitched.

Oh… That…that was quite a confession.

His words made her heart constrict and filled her with warmth.

Ronin pushed off the wall and reached into his pants pocket. “There’s one more thing I found.”

He held out his fist and uncurled his fingers. A ring lay on his palm, the band gleaming in the morning light. It was familiar, a relic from a lifetime ago, but it had only been weeks since she’d last seen it.

“I think this is yours, Lara Brooks.”

She stared at the small metal band in disbelief. “How did you….”

“When I left town, I passed the place where you were scavenging in the rain. I stopped, caught up in the memory, when I noticed this in the debris.”

“I thought it was gone.” Lara carefully took the ring between her forefinger and thumb and lifted it from his palm, half expecting it to disappear. Though slight, it had weight; it was real. “Thank you.”

Turning it from side to side, she studied the ring, fascinated by the play of sunlight within its clear stone despite the dirt built up within the surrounding prongs.

She grinned at Ronin. “You know, when a man gives a woman a ring, it’s usually because he’s asking her to marry him.”

His brow creased. “I fail to understand why humans still practice that custom. Isn’t marriage just the recognition of a coupling by a representative of authority? And what role does a ring play in it?”

“Quite the romantic, aren’t you?” She closed her fingers around the ring. “It’s a tradition, one people have held on to despite…you know, allthis. There’s hardship, yeah, but people still fall in love.”

Gary and Kate immediately came to mind. They were always affectionate and supportive of one another.

“I don’t know what you mean about...well, that other stuff you said. Representative of authority?” She wrinkled her nose. “The hell does that mean, anyway? And what does it have to do with people getting married?”

The corners of his mouth dipped. “My data is incomplete. Most of the relevant information is lost in the corrupted portion of my memory. There used to be…” He lapsed into a brief silence before shaking his head.

Would Ronin ever regain his lost memories, or were they gone forever?

He scratched his cheek. “Can’t remember. Just means that back then, the people in charge had to acknowledge a marriage. You mentioned love. Is marriage required for love?”

“Um, no. It’s not. Some people just like tradition. I think it’s because we’ve already lost so much. Feels good to keep something old alive.”

Opening her hand, she ran a finger around the ring’s loop. “Someone told me once that a ring means eternity because it’s a circle, and circles never end. When a man wants a woman to be his wife, he’ll find something to use as a ring, like wire, a cheap bit of a metal, or even some twine, and ask her to marry him.

“If she says yes, they both wear a ring to show they’re taken and devoted to each other. They make their vows to each other, usually with some other people watching, and then they’re married. Not that it means all that much to everyone. Heard about a lot of people who broke their vows…”

She frowned at the ring as sorrow filled her. Humans had lost so much that even these small symbols of love, these old romantic traditions, often meant…nothing. Lara sighed. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t know why we still bother.”

Ronin reached out and plucked the ring from her palm. He raised it to eye level, turning and tilting it, examining even the inside of the band. Then he took her hand and slipped the ring onto her finger.

Lara’s breath caught, and her eyes widened.

He grasped her chin and tipped it up, forcing her gaze to his. “You still bother because it means hope. Hope that everything will be okay, some day. Because it means a chance at a future even in a world that wants to destroy us. It means you are not alone.”

He covered her hand with both of his. “Let this ring be my vow, Lara. To protect you. To provide for you. To give you all you need that’s within my power, and to find a way to give you whatever’s not.”

The air fled her lungs. “Did you…did you just kind of…marry me?”

“I’ve given you my vow.”

She searched his face. This was one of the many times when she couldn’t read him, couldn’t tell how to interpret his words. After what she’d just told him, how could this be anything but him becoming her husband? The idea of being married to Ronin wasn’t as disagreeable as she might once have thought. He was a man, regardless of what was beneath his skin, and he’d treated her better than anyone apart from Tabitha.

Lara eased closer to him, drawing their hands to her chest. “Then I vow to protect you, too, to the best of my ability. To place my trust in you and never break yours. To remind you, every day, that you are alive.”