She smiled. "I knew that you did, Kenric.”
"Are you not surprised to hear me say it?"
Her heart sang. "No." With difficulty she kept from laughing aloud as her brave warrior cocked his shaggy head and frowned in puzzlement.
"You are not?"
"Nope. I've always known you loved me. It just took time for you to admit it to yourself." Well satisfied, she gave a sigh of blissful contentment.
Her happiness must have been infectious, for Kenric threw back his head and laughed.
"If I would not have been so thick-headed, I would have been able to find you much sooner."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember what you told me once?" He kissed the tip of her nose lightly, the heat in his eyes promising her that more was to come.
Bemused, she shook her head. "What?"
"That love was the most powerful magic." He kissed her ear, then her neck, making her shiver.
"Yes." She breathed.
He held up a rolled piece of yellowed parchment. "Once I realized that I loved you and spoke the words out loud, the spell appeared on the scroll. I knew then how to travel to you and, conversely, how to bring you back."
"Let me see it." Voice not quite steady, she held out her hand.
Slowly, after placing another kiss on the hollow of her throat, he unrolled the parchment.
Staring, she eyed him. "Are you kidding me? It's blank."
With a savage grin, he tossed it over his shoulder. "It has served its purpose." He kissed her again, this time full upon the lips, with a lingering heat that left no doubt that he loved her and needed her and wanted her. Forever.
As if she'd ever doubt it.
"I wonder what Roger thought," she mused out loud. "When we vanished like that."
He frowned, a shadow of annoyance crossing his face. "That is my one regret - that I cannot punish your Roger for hurting you."
"He is not my Roger." She corrected automatically. "And I'm sure he will have some explaining to do after firing that gun in the hospital."
"And then you being gone."
"With blood on the floor." She grinned. "I bet they’ll think Roger murdered me and hid my body."
"He would have," Kenric said darkly. "And me as well, if he could have gotten away with it."
"The inquiry will make the news." Thinking aloud, she shook her head. "Roger will hate that kind of publicity. They might even unearth his financial problems. It's not enough, but in his own way he’ll will suffer."
"Nay, it is not enough."
She reached up, this time ignoring the twinge in her shoulder, to cup his beloved face in her hands. "I don’t want any shadows between us, my love. I’m glad that you didn’t kill Roger, especially since you said you wanted to be completely done with killing."
He looked surprised, then turned his head, kissing the palm of her hand. "You are right." He told her finally, gazing at her intently. "No shadows."
"Only love."
He kissed her then, murmuring against her mouth. "Only love. Now you will stay here forever."
"Forever." She agreed, parting her lips in dazed anticipation of his next kiss.
And the next. And the next.
Forever.
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