Chapter 11: The One Kiss

Alessio's POV

I fell asleep on the floor of the east wing with the doctor's file open across my knees.

I did not mean to sleep. I only closed my eyes.

When I opened them I was in the castle, in the great hall where I had been married.

The candles were lit and the chairs were gone.

She stood at the far end in her wedding dress.

It was the ivory silk I had unbuttoned myself that night, one small button at a time, in the room above.

Her hair was down. Her feet were bare.

There was no hole in her chest.

"Rosalia," I said.

She did not smile, and she did not step back.

"I only have a little time," she said. "Come here."

I crossed the floor so fast I almost fell.

I stopped an arm's length from her, because I did not trust my hands.

She held out her wrist.

I took it and turned it over.

Her pulse was under my thumb, and it was warm.

I put my mouth against the inside of her wrist, where I used to kiss her in the mornings before Mina woke.

I felt her shiver, and the sound I made was not dignified.

"You are not real," I said against her skin.

"I am real enough tonight."

I kissed my way up her forearm, and she let me.

I kissed the inside of her elbow, and the curve of her shoulder under the silk.

When I reached her throat she tipped her head back, and her breath caught in a way I had not heard in a year.

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