Eleanor’s Reviews > The Rebel and the Rose > Status Update

A rhythm.
A beating heart.
Ransom's lashes fluttered, his chest bowing under her touch.
A breath!
And another.
Then a name. 'Seraphine.'
Sera let out a sob. 'Bastian?'
He whispered, 'I love you, too.’

Tightening his hold on Seraphine, Ransom backed away from his friends, his family, the people who once meant everything to him.
'Don't make us chase you.’ Frustration rippled in Lark's voice.
'Make your own choices. And I'll make mine.'
‘We need the girl, Ransom.'
Seraphine raised her middle finger.
Ransom palmed the hilt of his sword. 'Over my dead body.’

Seraphine sagged against him. "You came back,' she rasped. 'I knew you'd come back.’
'I never meant to leave you,' he said, sliding his hands through her hair, 'Forgive me, Sera.'
'Forgiven.'

Lark squared his shoulders, and Ransom might have decked him right then if Nadia's voice hadn't rung out at that very moment.
'Lark?' she cried. 'Hell's teeth. Tell me I'm not dreaming.’
Lark's attention shifted, the fight leaving his body like a sigh as Nadia ran to him.

Ransom was here, too. Stalking through the smoke like a predator on the hunt. Sera had never seen such rage before. But when their eyes met across the room, and he saw that she was still standing - still breathing - relief blanched the violence from his face. Raising a hand to his chest, he clutched at the space above his heart, like he was trying to stop it from leaping through his ribcage.

Her chains twisting and clanging, the girl pitched forward, her voice so small the wind almost snatched it away. 'Bastian?’
That name - the sight of her - was like an arrow through his heart. 'Anouk?'

The acolyte stared up at him, her hazel eyes growing.
They were shot through with red and rimmed in the dark shadows of endless sleepless nights, but he would have known them anywhere. They had chased him through a thousand nightmares, haunted him for ten long years.

She heard the smile in his voice. ‘Whatever it takes. Wherever you choose.'
‘You,' she whispered, as her lids drooped. ‘Wherever you are, is where I want to be.'

He lay down beside her, and she turned into him, thinking of her life far beyond this night.
He gazed down at her. 'A kingdom for your thoughts.’
They had been here once before. Now they were here again.
'Run away with me, Bastian?’ The imploring look on her face said the rest, the enormity of the plea too heavy to voice.

She shook it oft, a new thought belatedly occurring to her. 'Did I hurt you?'
He shook his head. ‘How could you hurt me, Scraphine?’