Chapter 596: I Will Find You Again and Again

Edmund and Primrose lay tangled together on the bed. The clothes they had only just put on were scattered across the floor once again, forgotten almost as soon as they had touched each other.

Primrose wrapped her arms tightly around Edmund, holding him close as he moved against her.

She held her breath every time he leaned down to place another gentle kiss somewhere on her face.

He kissed her forehead, her temple, the corner of her eye, and finally her lips, as though he could never decide which part of her deserved his affection the most.

Edmund had always been gentle with her, but tonight, Primrose felt as though he was trying to be even more careful than usual. Every kiss he gave her, every tender touch of his hands, and every sweet word that left his lips carried so much love that Primrose felt as though she were drowning in it.

"I love you," Edmund whispered against her lips.

Primrose tightened her arms around his shoulders. "You’ve already told me that."

Edmund smiled warmly. "I know."

A breathless laugh escaped her, but Edmund only smiled before kissing her again.

"Then why do you keep saying it?" Primrose asked softly.

His expression softened as he looked down at her. For a moment, he simply stared at her as if he were trying to memorize everything about her all over again.

Edmund replied to her gently, "Because I spent too many lifetimes unable to tell you."

The smile slowly disappeared from Primrose’s face when she heard his words.

Edmund brushed a strand of red hair away from her cheek. "So let me say it as many times as I want in this lifetime."

Her eyes immediately burned with tears because this man really knew how to make her cry at the worst possible time.

"Then I also want to say it as much as I can," Primrose caressed his cheeks, lifting her head a little bit so she could kiss his lips. "I love you, my Edmund."

Edmund’s gaze softened at the way she called him my Edmund. He lowered his head until their foreheads touched, and for several heartbeats, neither of them said anything.

[My Rose.] Edmund suddenly called her name in his mind. Even there, where his thoughts belonged to him alone, his inner voice remained impossibly gentle. [My Primrose. My wife. My love.]

One of Edmund’s hands stroked her hair while the other rested behind her back, drawing her closer until there was no distance left between them.

The pleasure he gave her could not even compare to the love that seemed to pour from him.

Primrose closed her eyes as he kissed her more deeply, as though he wanted to pour every bit of his love into that kiss.

Yet that seemed impossible, because his love did not belong only to his lips or his hands. It seemed to exist in every cell of his body, in every breath he took, and in every beat of the heart beneath her palm.

Even the way they moved together felt different tonight.

There was no urgency between them and there was no desperate hunger to chase an ending. Their bodies simply followed each other in a slow, familiar rhythm, as if making love was another language they had learned together over countless lifetimes.

Edmund kissed her again.

[I love you.]

His arms tightened around her.

[I love you.]

His forehead rested against hers as their breaths mingled.

[I love you.]

Again and again, the same words passed through his mind, keeping time with every movement between them until Primrose could no longer tell whether she was hearing his thoughts or feeling them through the way he held her.

Perhaps this was what she had wanted all along.

She didn’t ask for pleasure, desire, not even the happiness she had once begged the heavens to give them.

She had only wanted to love Edmund without being punished for it.

Once, their love had existed beneath the shadow of death. Their first life together had been painfully short, and every lifetime that followed had turned loving each other into something they had to pay for with suffering.

But tonight, there was no temple separating them. No divine punishment waiting outside the door. No blood staining Edmund’s face. No cruel fate telling Primrose that she was forbidden from keeping the man in her arms.

There was only him and her.

Primrose suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and held him even tighter. "Please..." she whispered beneath her breath. "... don’t ever leave me again."

Edmund stopped moving and for a moment, he said nothing. He simply looked at her, and Primrose almost wished she could take those words back.

No, it wasn’t because she did not mean them, but because she knew how impossible the promise sounded after everything they had been through.

They had promised each other forever once before, but fate had answered by tearing them apart.

Edmund’s hand slipped into her hair, gently cradling the back of her head as though even now, he was afraid of holding her too tightly.

"I won’t," he whispered.

Primrose’s lips trembled. "You can’t promise that."

"I know."

"Then why did you?"

Edmund remained silent, but his thoughts answered before his lips could. [Because I cannot bear to tell you anything else.]

"I know I cannot command death. I cannot command fate. I could not even protect you from the heavens when they decided to punish us." His thumb slowly brushed beneath her eye. "But if staying beside you is something I can choose, then I will choose it every single day."

"Until my last breath."

"Edmund..."

"And if something takes me away from you again," he continued softly, "then I will come back."

Primrose shook her head as another tear escaped. "You make it sound so easy."

"It isn’t." His lips touched her forehead. "I already know how difficult it is to find you again, but I also know that I can."

"So even if it takes me another hundred lifetimes..." Edmund kissed her lips. "...I will find you."