They slipped out of the cottage after supper, saying they had to inspect the traps along the creek. Finn raised an eyebrow. Bria's smile was faint, knowing and amused.
Elias and Charlotte strolled further than they needed to, Elias carrying a woven basket full of precisely nothing useful. But Charlotte had stashed one bottle of plum wine under a cloth and grinned like a culprit.
By the time they made it to the edge of the forest, dusk had fallen into velvet darkness. Fireflies flashed like chattering stars.
"Do you think the woods remember us?" Charlotte asked, her tone low, flirtatious.
Elias settled down beside her on the mossy crest. "If so, it's likely it's relieved we've finally stopped tearing it up."
"I was never the wrecking ball one," she answered, taking a sip of the wine. "I was flighty.
"You were a menace," he told her, but with a laugh in his voice.
Charlotte settled back against the trunk of the tree, allowing her hand to run through the grass. "Do you recall the evening of the masquerade ball? You had a silly silver mask and trod on my gown during the waltz."
"I recall thinking if I made it through that evening, I'd wed you."
Her breath was caught.
Silence came down, stretched as wide as the sky above. Leaves rustled in the wind.
He moved closer, hand tracing hers. "That wasn't a proposal. Just a memory. From a world where things ended too soon."
She angled her head toward him. "And what about this one?"
"This one?" he echoed.
She kissed him then—no hesitation, no surprise. Just a claim, soft and sure.
He kissed her again, hard and burning. A kiss that remembered loss, that had smoldered across centuries to be here. That declared: We're still here. We're still picking each other.
As they finally broke apart, Charlotte buried her forehead against his. "I thought I lost everything when I died."
"You didn't," Elias breathed. "You were just… found again."
The stars whirled overhead. The universe paused, breathless.
And Charlotte laughed—head thrown back, wine-tinted and uncontrolled.
"I think," she said, "the gods are watching."
Elias grinned. "Then let's put on a show."