Page 175 of Loving the Tormentor

I look at him, but he doesn't seem to care one bit. If anything, he looks like he still agrees with the statement he made at the time.

"Remember when you all thought I was dead?" he teases, but it’s too dark to land. "Remember how much you missed me then? Wasn't that because I'm amazing?"

"Achilles!" Ella snaps. "Don't talk about that. It was horrible."

"Because I'm such an exceptional being?" he insists.

"I hate you. I literally hate you," Peach adds.

"Sometimes I go to your grave and think about actually putting you in there," Wren adds, dragging a mocking snort out of Chris.

"Wren!" Alex gasps, but Xi is laughing next to her, so she turns to him instead. "Stop this right now."

"My favorite posts were the ones about my brother," Wren adds.

"Never liked the fucker. Did those purely out of spite."

"Doesn’t make up for the ones you posted about us, though," Peach jumps back in.

I look at my friends starting to argue over whether Achilles deserves love or hate, and I relax with my baby girl on my chest. Next to me, I feel Achilles settling closer, and I look at the poised smile on his face, proud that he caused chaos yet again as the debate keeps going.

He looks at me, his eyes shining with happiness. "I like our crazy family," he murmurs.

"I like it too."

"And I love you," he adds, making my heart skip a beat.

"You have no idea how glad I am that grave is empty."

He nods. "Well, I heard there's a priceless violin that some silly girl put in there."

I bite my lower lip. "Oops."

He pushes my fringe out of my eyes. "Thank you, Nyx."

I look at him, searching for the meaning in it, but I end up shaking my head. "What for?"

"For helping me choose life. Every day, I wake up, and I choose this life over and over with all my heart. I'm done surviving. Ichooseto live, and one day, we'll be old, and our kids will be gone, and we'll be an elderly couple in our lake house. And whenever our time on earth is up, I'll be able to look you in the eyes again and say that I lived. That's all thanks to you."

I blink away the tears that threaten to fall, but instead of wiping them like he'd usually do, he kisses me with a force that stops me from crying anyway.

In the last years, our lives were turned upside down. We were shattered and put back together, and we learned to adapt to everything that was thrown our way.

But some things never changed.

Our love for each other, for example. Ourobsessions.

I know it because when Achilles Duval kisses me, he steals the breath from my lungs, the logic from my mind. He obliterated my torments with his brand of love, and the damage he does to my heart is lethal.

Life with him is safe and beautiful. Loving him is the most natural thing in the world.

And I want to feel that way forever.

THE END