162

ELLARIA.Tate fell asleep halfway through his second story.I kept reading anyway. I read all the way to the end of the chapter about the rabbit who wanted to be a dragon, because if I stopped, I'd have to get up, and if I got up, I'd have to think.When I finally closed the book, the room was quiet except for his breathing.He was curled on his side with one hand tucked under his cheek. There was a small bandage on his neck where Gregory's claw had scratched him. It was tiny. It was barely anything. I'd cleaned it myself and put a bandage on it with dinosaurs printed on it, and he'd told me very seriously that it was the best bandage he'd ever had.I looked at it for a long time.Then I pulled the blanket up to his chin, kissed his forehead, and made myself leave the room.The hallway was dark. I stood outside his door with my hand still on the knob and breathed.It had been the longest day of my life. I'd watched Arren shot twelve times. I'd watched him beaten. I'd pulled magic out

163.

ELLARIA.The front door had barely clicked shut behind Caden when I saw him walk past Arren.He stopped at the bottom of the steps. The two of them looked at each other for a long moment.I couldn't hear anything through the glass. Caden said something short. Arren nodded once. Then Caden kept walking down the path and out through the gate, and he didn't look back.Arren didn't move from the post.I stood at the window with my hand still on the light switch, and my heart was going so hard I could feel it in my fingertips.He'd seen. There was no way he hadn't.I made myself walk to the front door. I opened it just enough to lean out, and the night air came in cold against my face."Arren," I said.He lifted his head."Do you…" I cleared my throat. "Do you want to come in?"He didn't answer right away. He looked at me, then past me at the lit hallway, then down at his bandaged hands."I'm not sure I should," he said.His voice was flat and tight. He was standing so stiffly it looked li

164

ELLARIA.I didn’t let go of his hand.We sat at that kitchen table with our fingers laced together and the tea going cold between us, and for a long time neither of us moved.The house was quiet in the particular way houses get after a day that has taken too much.Somewhere upstairs my mother and my aunts slept curled together like they used to when storms rattled the windows. Tate was safe in his bed with a dinosaur bandage on his neck and the steady breathing of a child who finally believed the worst was over. The longest day of our lives had ended, and somehow we were still here, still breathing, still holding on to each other across a scarred wooden table.Arren’s thumb brushed once across my knuckles. The bandage on his hand was rough against my skin. I looked at the places where blood had started to seep through and felt something tight and fierce and protective rise in my chest.“Come upstairs,” I said.He lifted his eyes to mine. There were shadows under them deep enough to fa

165.

ELLARIA.He turned his head and kissed my palm, then the inside of my wrist, then the sensitive skin of my forearm as he worked his way back to my mouth.The second kiss was deeper. Hungrier. I arched up into him and felt him smile against my lips before he started a slow, devastating path downward.He kissed my jaw, lingering at the spot just beneath my ear that had always made me shiver. His tongue traced the line of my throat. He spent long minutes at the hollow of my collarbones, tasting, nipping lightly, soothing with open-mouthed kisses until I was restless beneath him. When he finally reached my breasts he looked up at me once, checking, and then took one nipple into his mouth with a slow, wet heat that made my back arch off the bed.“Arren—”“I’ve got you,” he murmured against my skin. “Let me take my time. I’ve waited years to do this right.”He lavished attention on first one breast and then the other, alternating between soft suction and the light graze of his teeth, the fl

EPILOGUE I

ARREN.I woke up before she did.That was a first. Most mornings of our marriage I'd been gone before the sun came up, and the few times I wasn't, she'd been up first, making coffee I didn't have time to drink.Now I was lying on my side with every inch of me aching, watching her sleep.She was on her stomach with her face turned toward me, one arm tucked under the pillow. Her hair was everywhere. There was a crease on her cheek from the sheet. Her mouth was open a little, and every few breaths she made a small sound that wasn't quite a snore.I wasn't going to tell her that. I valued my life.The light coming through the curtains was pale and early. The house was quiet. My ribs hurt when I breathed, my hands throbbed under the bandages, and my face felt like someone had driven over it more than once.I didn't care about any of it.She was here, and I was here. I'd said the words out loud last night, over and over, and she'd said them back.I reached out and moved a piece of hair off

All Chapters of His Contract Luna Says Goodbye : Chapter 161 - Chapter 165

162

163.

164

165.

EPILOGUE I