“Siria,” he corrected.
Her lips twisted. “Chrysalis always knew her as reflection,” she said softly, almost sadly.
“So you are two in one?” It was the one question he’d always wanted to ask her. The one question he’d mulled over late at night when he couldn’t sleep, could only think about who she’d been, what she was. “Does Chrysalis,” he huffed, not sure how to even ask this question.
She frowned. “I am two, and I was separate. I never knew that I was anything other than me.” She tapped her chest. “I was always Lissa. And I’d seen the ghostly mirage of Chrysalis, but in some ways I believe Chrysa was shielding me as best she could. Protecting my mind from Siria’s poison, so that in the end—”
“You could be her salvation,” he finished for her.
She nodded. “Siria was very strong, stronger even in many ways than Chrysa herself was, making me unaware of the struggle was Chrysalis’ only choice.”
He shook his head. Grabbing her hands and kissing the knuckles hard. “I don’t blame her. After I figured it out, and really had time to think on it, I realize she had no choice. But, Lissa, I have to know… How do you feel about me?”
He could taste the adrenaline on his tongue, it was thick and cloying and bitter. His heart raced so hard he was sure she must be able to hear it.
A beatific smile spread like sun-warmed honey across her pale, lovely face. “I love you more now, then I did then. Each day I’ve fallen a little harder, a little madder for you, my Huntsman.”
His lashes fluttered. “So why did you not come find me? How long have you been alive? I know you died, I saw you. I saw your parents grieve for you.”
Nodding slowly, she clenched her jaw. “Yes, you are right. I did die. The evil in me died. And it took weeks. My father could not stand the thought of putting me inside the ground, so he’d built a glass casket for me and set it within a field of wild poppies. My mother was the one to find me when my eyes finally opened. Do you remember the blessing that Danika placed on us the night of our birth? The one Chrysa told you about?”
“That if you chose goodness you would be saved?”
“Yes.” She nodded forcefully. “It was that blessing that ultimately woke us. Danika’s magic counteracted Siria’s vengeance.”
Rubbing the petal like softness of her cheek with his thumb, willing his frothing emotions to calm, Aeric shook his head. “So your body expelled the darkness, and then you opened your eyes.”
She blinked, and they were so much brighter and happier than he remembered.
“But you said it was weeks. We’ve been apart months, Lissa. How long have you been awake?”
Her lips thinned. “A month.”
His heart sank, because that wasn’t the answer he’d have wished to hear. “And yet here you stayed.”
“Here I stayed,” she echoed him, “yes, and here I shall stay.” As if anticipating his follow up question, her smile was bittersweet. “I can never leave here, Aeric. I tried. The moment I awoke. My…my father, it is tricky for me to think of him as such now when for so long I simply knew him as the Hatter,” she said as an afterthought, and then shook her head, “my father tried to warn me, but I was so determined to get to you I would not heed his advice.”
“And what advice was that?” Aeric could only imagine, he’d obviously made a very poor first impression with the Hatter if he warned his daughter to stay away. A month lost, a month he’d thought her dead, and in all that time she’d not tried very hard to dissuade him of that notion.
It was enough to make him drop her hands and take a step back as the pain and hurt began to turn to defeat. He’d thought he’d known Lissa, had felt her soul breathe against his own.
“No, you don’t understand. I know what you and the Hatter…” she cleared her throat, “my father, went through. He explained that he felt responsible for driving you off in that way, because he blamed you for my condition. But truly it was more a father’s fears made manifest rather than him truly believing you to be the source of my,” her wrist fluttered, “malady. My father,” she paused, “told me that I might have problems leaving wonderland because of my dual nature.”
Aeric narrowed his eyes. “There are many shifters in Kingdom. Look,” he held up his hand, stalling her words, “if you do not want to be with me, I understand, but please, after all we’ve been through, don’t lie to me.”