I will always be good to you,” he says solemnly, all traces of playfulness gone from his hard face. “You are my life, my heart, my everything.”I wrap my arms around him as he pushes into me. If I’m his heart, he’s my soul. We’re one, and we’re together.

Meh-gan,” he says, voice so gentle that it makes my insides ache. “I will be back when I have done my job as a hunter. It does not mean I will not miss you. It does not mean I will not think of you and your sweet smile every waking moment. It means I will be providing for you and our son. And I will be back in time to see him born, I promise.

Why are you giving me money?”“To show you how much you mean to me.” He picks one up and places it in my lap, then does the same with the next one. “You said that things in your world were valuable if they cost much mahnee. You are the thing that I love the most in this world, so I wanted to give you mahnee to show you that.

I wonder what you sound like?”Her words sound sad to me, and so I kiss her palm to distract her. It does not matter what I sound like. I sound like hers. I am hers.

She raises her hands to sign, then drops them. She does not know what to say.That is fine. I know what I wish to tell her. "You are my heart, always. I can wait for you to realize that.

My brother Sessah races forward, and I grab him just as he flings himself at Lilah and I. I swing him in the air, grinning. “Little brother, do not knock down my mate!”“I want to say hello,” he calls out, waving happily at Li-lah. He makes a new gesture, one that makes my heart swell with pride. Welcome home, he signs to Li-lah, and then looks at me. “Did I do it right?”I rumple his messy hair and set him down. “You did well.

I love you too, Maddie, but I love being here. I love Rokan. I love all of this and it feels exciting to me. I want to keep learning and growing stronger. And I’m sorry if you don’t like it here, but that doesn’t mean I want to leave. There is nothing back on Earth that holds a candle to what I’ve got with Rokan. Nothing.

You should have stayed with your sister.”“Why? She doesn’t need me.” I tilt my head, studying him. “You don’t need me, either, not really. I’m not going to lie—I’m probably going to be shitty company on this trip. I’m going to be slow as molasses, and I’m not very strong. But you do need a friend…and I can be that for you.”He covers the hands I have on his cheeks with his own, and then lifts my hands to kiss each palm. “Are we just friends, Mah-dee? You know you have my heart.