Novel & Cerita I Would Have Waited 500 More Years

Probably watching over her, protecting her, drowning in his own obsession. “Seven hundred and thirty-two years…” I murmured to the glass. “Seven hundred and thirty-two years waiting for this.” Revenge was a dish best served cold. And I was about to prepare a feast.

"When are we ever going to have our mating ceremony?" I didn't respond immediately. What she was saying wasn't a surprise to me, but it struck me harder than I had expected. I swallowed hard, still gazing at the road. "I don't know," I finally said, my voice was lower than I intended. "You don't know?" she asked sharper, her voice piercing the air. "We've waited five years. Everybody has." I took a deep breath and raked a hand through my hair. "I had doubts."

Her body just found the cold glass and went there and she let it, her forehead against the pane and the street empty below and the weight of the headache still sitting somewhere behind her eyes. Five years. She had been patient for five years. She had managed and held and waited and told herself it wasn’t time yet, not yet, soon but not yet, and her body had been building a case for weeks and tonight had been the last piece of that case being presented and she had heard it. The patience was done.

Five hundred years passed since Hope chose rest. Five hundred years since Dawn's first sacrifice. Five hundred years since the beginning of everything. The community had grown beyond imagination. Millions of beings. Thousands of species. Hundreds of forms of consciousness. All coexisting. All thriving. All living Hope's legacy.

I asked. “No, this was the future. At least my future.” “I am sorry, but I am struggling to understand.” I frowned. “It might help if I told you that I have been dead for five hundred years, wandering divide between realms until I sensed your arrival. I knew that if I hadn’t been here to save you, the river would have swallowed you, and your mate would have turned every realm upside down to find you.”

seemed to be no longer waiting for him in the same place! Two years. More than seven hundred days and nights.... Was it really too late?

I drew the first slip. Blank. Adrian’s face shifted, from hope to a dull, slow disappointment. I gave him a soft smile. “You’re the one who kept telling me this was God’s will.” He didn’t even flinch. “Again.” I drew the second one. Still blank. “Looks like you’ll have to wait at least another year.” Adrian shook his head stubbornly. “No matter how many years it takes...I’ll wait.” He looked so full of hope.

Okay, I'll wait then," he smiles weakly. Other than his slightly diminished smile, he doesn't seem discouraged, though, continuing almost as energetically as before. Is this guy for real? "Well, you might as well give up now, otherwise you'll be waiting forever." I look away, letting the harsh words leave my lips. "Don't worry, I'm willing to wait forever. I have all the time in the world," he says softly, his words making me jump. Of course you do. How can I forget? He's not even a human. "I think you're forgetting that I'll die in about seventy-five years. I don't have forever," I whisper, my voice caught by his sensitive ears. Silence stretches between us as the seconds pass. I feel uncom

Most just didn't want to give up having a normal life. I felt a soul being born again; this time, it was in December. I knew this was my last chance. I was going to do things right this time. I would take it slow and give her a chance to come to love me. She would get to know me, and when I felt she was ready, I would tell her what I was and offer her a life with me. By this point, I had lived for 650 years, only 30 of which I was human. I knew how to take my time.

He would live for centuries. He had said it simply and factually over three weeks ago and it still replayed in my head over and over, the way he said things that were simply true about his nature, and I had said that's insane and laughed and let the conversation move on. But the thought had stayed. Had moved into a quiet corner of my mind and settled there and been living there ever since, waiting for a moment exactly like this one. He would live for centuries. And I wouldn't. I looked at the horizon and sat with that. With the full, unmanaged weight of it. The years that were available to me, which were normal human years, the ordinary years.