Maximus's POV
Her eyes opened wide at my question, water dripping down her lashes like crystal tears. For a moment she looked at me as though I had asked something absurd, something ordinary.
“What do you mean?” she said lightly, though her voice trembled in a way she couldn’t hide. She tilted her head and offered me a weak smile. “Who am I? I’m Emilia. Hello…” She even lifted a wet hand from the bathwater in a mock wave, as if pretending this was all a joke.
But I didn’t smile.
“That’s not what I mean,” I said, my voice low, rough. “And you know it.”
The faint humor drained from her expression. Her hand sank back into the water.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about it,” I went on, my chest tight with the words I’d carried too long. “Last night in the forest. How you stopped my beast f
