Page 76 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

He tucked an arm behind his head. “The navy wyvern remembered something.”

My heart skipped a beat. “And?”

Heat spiked in the room, and Rogue threw the blanket off to climb out of bed. My jaw went slack as he walked to the dresser, not because he was naked, but because this was the first time I’d seen his back, fully bare and in plain sight.

I lifted my hands to my trembling lips and crawled out after him. He stilled when my hands touched the scarred skin.

There were still scabs.

If it were just his wings removed, the scars would’ve been cleaner, two vertical lines—maybe raised if they didn’t cut flush to his back.

This was not that.

This was an angry onslaught of pain, reopened again and again, older scars, deeper ones alongside fresh ones. Some lines were clean like that of a blade, while others were jagged and rough, like he’d…he’d…

His cuticles had been bloody in the cave.

Oh, dear Goddess above.

My hand flattened over the center of his back.

“You…” My voice was too quiet, too raw, my throat tight. “You did this.”

He stepped away from my touch and pulled on a pair of trousers. “I did a lot of things.”

“Why?” I breathed, barely louder than a whisper.

He held my gaze for a beat, brows knitting together. With a shake of his head, he sat on the edge of his bed and rested his elbows on his knees, hands clasped.

“I did a lot of things, but there was more I didn’t do— couldn’t do.

I couldn’t set foot in Draig Hearth. I couldn’t sleep in our bed; hell, I hardly slept at all.

I couldn’t be around our family, not even Iaso.

I visited Elora once a week, because she needed it, but I hated even that.

And the scars…” He scoffed and dropped his forehead to his palm.

“I couldn’t let them heal. I couldn’t. It meant too much time had passed—time you spent in that fucking pit of hell, time you were left being tortured, because I couldn’t find you.

Because I couldn’t save you that night in Canyon. ”

I sank to my knees in front of him.

“Three months… ” His voice cracked, a slight tremble in his fingers, and I pulled his hand from his face. “Three months, and then, I watched you die. It wasn’t you, but I didn’t know that, and when I did find you, you didn’t know me anymore. I was too late.”

I blinked back the burn in my eyes, licking my lips before bringing them between my teeth.

“There’s a part of me that’s ashamed for smothering the Fae flame, but there’s a much larger part—a much more selfish, cowardly part that’s so fucking thankful I did, so I didn’t have to feel the moment you didn’t recognize me.”

Moisture pooled in his eyes, and my heart shattered into pieces at his feet. When a stray tear escaped, I reached up to wipe it away like he’d done for me a thousand times, but he caught my hand and held it to his cheek.

“Then, I felt you die. I felt every agonizing second as you were torn from my chest, our mate bond left in shards, and I knew I couldn’t live without you. I wouldn’t.”

He cupped the nape of my neck and rested his forehead on mine.

“Everything I do is for you,” he murmured. “Everything.”

He pressed a broken kiss to my lips, and I climbed into his lap, wrapping my legs around his waist, burying my face in his neck.

“We’ll save the realm, because I need to know it’s safe for you.

For us. I need a life with you.” His breath shuddered, his hand holding the back of my head.

“I need peace, I need rest, but more than anything else, I need to watch you simply exist— to live a life you don’t have to constantly fight for. I want to exist with you.”

I nodded and kissed his neck, his cheeks, his forehead, the tip of his nose, his lips. “We’ll have that and more. Centuries. We’ll spend centuries doing nothing more than smiling, my love. Smiling and laughing and breathing and?—”

“Marry me.”

Without a second thought, I replied, “Yes.”

He pulled back, his hands tight on my waist. “Yes?”

I cupped his cheeks and dragged him back down to capture his lips again, now grinning as I mumbled, “Yes,” over and over between kisses.

He wound an arm around my waist. His other hand wrapped beneath my jaw to hold me still. “Tell me again.”

I slid his hand to my mouth and kissed the center of his palm. “I love you, Rogue Draki, and I would love to marry you.”

He closed his eyes, his chest rising on a deep inhale, his crooked smile tugging at my heartstrings. “I love you, too, so fucking much.”

“Ara.”

I whirled around.

“What?” Rogue asked, his voice soft.

“I thought I heard someone,” I said, shaking my head when I found the room empty, the only movement that of the sheer curtains billowing near the window.

“It’s just us, little storm.” He tucked my hair behind my ear.

“Ara?”

“No.” I slid out of his lap and jogged to the door to check the hallway, but it was empty, too. Not a maid or castle worker in sight. “No, I heard someone.”

The door clicked shut as I turned around and stopped in my tracks.

We weren’t in Rogue’s room.

We weren’t in any room.

Ancient trees reached into the sky, clouds hanging low, and just ahead, a lake stretched all the way to the horizon.