I stroked the faint bruise on her throat. “You are mine,” I said in a low voice. “And it’s not them I’m reminding, it’s myself, because even after eleven years sometimes it still seems impossible that I have you, that I love you and that you love me.”

Aria’s fingers trailed down to my shoulder blade with the tattoo, her eyes warm and fierce. “I’ll go wherever you go no matter how dark the path.”

I grasped her wrist with the bracelet I’d given her many years ago and brought it to my lips, kissing it. “Even in the darkest hour, you are my light.”

THE END