Skyshade

“I’ll never hate you, Isla. I’ll love you until my final breath—even if you’re the reason I’m taking it.”

“I want you. I still want you, even though you’re a traitor. I still want you, even though you’re my enemy. I still want you, even though you might kill me. I want you, I want you, I want you, and it is the most selfish thing I have ever felt.”

“My love for you is like that forever flame, Isla. Relentless. Stubborn. Endless. Burning brightly, even if you’re not around to see it.”

“I go to that cliff, that beach, every single morning because the sea is the green of your eyes, and it’s the closest I get to waking up next to you.”

I thought . . . I thought maybe we could have a child

“I’m not sure of much in this world, Isla, but I am sure of this. My love for you doesn’t know reason. It doesn’t know limit. It doesn’t know death. In every universe, every timeline, I am yours . . . and you are mine.”

You’re right. I don’t know what love is. I don’t know how to love. If you ever gave me another chance to love you, I would learn. I would learn the right way to love you.”

“You don’t know what love is.”

“I don’t?” he said, bridging the space between them. “I waged a war for you. I bound my life to you.”

“If waging a war for one woman is a crime, then please do consider me a criminal.” Closer. “If killing thousands to keep you alive is wrong, then consider me a villain.” She now had to tilt her head to see him clearly. He leaned down. His breath was hot against her mouth. “If loving you this much is my downfall . . . then consider me already on my knees.”

She had survived many storms before. She would survive this one too.