Status Updates From Bloodsinger (The Fire That ...

—He wrapped an arm beneath my waist & kept me still, holding himself close & deep. “You know it’s true,” he whispered. “Don’t you?”
—I couldn’t speak, my entire being sapped of strength, my voice having flown away with my spirit. I simply closed my eyes & nodded.
—“Yes,” he whispered, brushing his mouth along my cheek & jaw. “You’ll always remember me.”

….Uggghhn. Trajan. 💙

‘Reaching up, I did something I’d been wanting to do for some time. I cupped his face & felt the bristles of his trim beard, lightly moving my fingers of one hand across his brow. His expression softened, but he still didn’t speak. There was pain in his gaze. I’d know. Pain was a familiar companion of mine. And yet I loathed seeing it on him.’

—“You still love him.”
—“Always.” She remained quiet, while I swallowed the realization that the fates had been cruel to me as well. The sisters of destiny had chosen for me a woman more beautiful than the stars & just as unreachable.
—“The girl I was will always love him. But I’m not her anymore. I am an entirely new person, forged in the fires of loss, grief, pain…of Rome.”