Page 48

Rhodes---Choices

There is a vulnerability in her face that I haven’t seen before, and it is a stark contrast to the Amelia the rest of the world sees. From the time she was thirteen, she’s fought off the wolves who circled like she was prey. In many ways, she still fights them and is barely holding a few at arm’s length. Her entire life, she’s had to keep her guard up, her defenses at the ready.

She is the last of her line, without someone watching her six.

“I have you.”

Her eyes close as I crouch in front of her. Running my hands up her bare legs, stopping to rest on her thighs, I duck my head to catch her gaze. “Amelia. Look at me, please?” Her hands flex on the comforter draped across the bed and her body tenses. It’s almost as if she is afraid of opening her eyes.

“Eyes, kochanie .” They flick open, lined with tears and she bites her bottom lip. “I have you. I know you carry so much and it is heavy. I see it. I see the way you have to dance with the devil and the way you have to negotiate just to see a new morning.”

Her eyes dart between mine, her thick brows crinkling as she looks for a glimmer of falsity. She won’t find it. I mean exactly what I’m swearing to her.

“I’ve been alone for so long, Ro. It is exhausting and I don’t feel like I can even say that because I chose this. It was my choice to live this life.” She stares at the floor again, clearly wanting to say something but holding back.

“ Kochanie , what is it?”

I hear the tremble in her voice when she finally answers.

“I can’t ask you to sacrifice for me. I won’t.”

I grip her biceps, waiting for her head to lift before I respond. “Is it a sacrifice if it is done in love? Is it too much to ask me to simply stand beside the bravest person I know? To defend her? You aren’t asking me to do anything, Amelia. I know you would never ask that of me, but hear me when I say that I am choosing you.”

She shakes her head violently, the war in her head manifesting physically. This isn’t a sacrifice. I am not doing this out of obligation. From the moment I decided to make Amelia’s city my home, I have followed the goddess who runs it. I don’t know if I’ll ever tell her how well she has been watched over, but I refuse to stop now.

“No, pretty girl. It doesn’t matter what comes our way. But this life? This love? It is the furthest thing from a sacrifice.” I gather her in my hands, lifting her body. Spinning us around, I sit on the bed, draping her legs over mine, and cradle her head into my chest. My free hand skims her spine and I murmur softly in her ear. “I am yours, and you, my kochanie , are mine.”

As the moonlight falls through the window, her breathing slows and she slumps into me. I keep running my hand down her back, letting her sleep on me, knowing that the storm brewing will likely require everything she has left to give.