Forever in the Past and Forever in the Future

"Bronx?" | say shyly. | hope he is sleepy enough that he will just say yes to my request.

"Yeah, Baby?" he responds sleepily. His voice is almost a whisper.

"| want to do something for you, but | need your permission and I'm afraid you'll say no," | try to sound

casual and calm.

The light of the moon shining through the window is the only light allowing me to see his reaction. He

opens his eye and looks atme with concern but his voice sounds suspicious of my motives, "Why would

| ever tell you no? But more importantly, why would you need permission?"

"I-| want to heal you," | sit up, facing him, "I don't want you to end up with scars like mine. | know in

Blood River having scars is a badge of honor, but this is different.”

"You're right. I'm going to say no," he rolls gingerly on his back away from me and stares at the ceiling,

"It isn't your burden to bear. | don't want you to waste your precious strength on something like that.

You're healing, yourself. You don't need to heal me too."

Ugh, why does my mate have to be so stubborn.

"Bronx, please. | have enough strength for this. | mean I'll probably be tired tomorrow, but | will be fine, |

promise,” | pout.

"Kas, you almost died bringing me back from the brink of death. | can't lose you because you are

worried about my vanity. | can't."

"You won't lose me. This is a simple enough healing. There's no poison in your bloodstream anymore,

it's just flesh wounds. This is basic stuff. I've trained for it for months. Please, let me do this for you.”

He gets out of bed and starts pacing, looking at me angrily. There is also a touch of confusion mixed in.

He stops and rubs his face with his hands before he puts them on his hips.

Oh crap. He's frustrated with me.

"You're not going to stop until | say yes, are you?”

“Probably not," | shrug, trying to sound nonchalant.

"If | let you do this and anything happens to you |-"

"Nothing will happen. It will just make me extra sleepy. | promise."

He sighs heavily, letting his arms drop to his sides in defeat, "Okay, | don't want this to turn into a fight,

so if it will appease you, fine. You can try to heal me. What do you want me to do?" A sense of relief

spreads over me, "Thank you, Bronx. Thank you so much." | sit up on my knees and pull him down to

sit on the bed.

"Just relax, think about what it feels like when your back is well...not full of lash marks. Don't think

about me, don't think about anyone else, just imagine what you look and feel like when you are one

hundred percent healthy."

"Ohh-kaay?" He looks at me like I'm crazy. "Just close your eyes and focus, please.” : He closes his

eye and takes a deep breath. Bronx's POV

| close my eye and sigh deeply. | know this is a bad idea but | have to trust her.

"Now, think about your body. Think about what it feels like when you move when you exercise. The way

your muscles on your

back feel when you're fighting. The way they relax when you're next to me," she speaks, her voice

subtly changes, "Good, now think deeper than that. Think down to the individual strands of muscle.

Think about when they are flexed, about when they are stretched. The way they feel when you get a

massage."

As Kas talks, | feel my body relax, like I'm hypnotized. Her voice melts into me, becoming part of me.

It's so natural, like it has always been there.

| start to understand what Kas meant when she said she spread herself out in the universe. | can feel

my body, but it doesn't necessarily matter at that moment. | am more than just my body. | am part of my

surroundings as well.

Her arms slide around me as she leans on my back. | feel a warmth building in my chest radiating to

my back. It doesn't hurt. It's comforting and | don't want it to stop. | feel any tension that | didn't even

know that | had been holding on to release from my body. | feel better than | have in weeks. Shit,

months even.

The warmth starts to dissipate into the far corners of my body, evening out and cooling down. | open

my eye and look around. No pain, no soreness, nothing.

| look at Kas sitting back on the bed. She smiles weakly.

"You did it?" | laugh in disbelief, “You did it Kas!"

| stand up and swing my arms back and forth like I'm warming up for an upper-body workout. It doesn't

hurt. I'm not even a little sore. | turn on the light and go to the mirror, turning to look at my back.

Anywhere there was a lash mark has been replaced withsmooth skin. No scarring, no tattoos, nothing.

It's not even red. | turn again and look at my chest. Same thing. No more redness from the silver

chains. | look down at my wrists, no blisters. The only indication there was ever a flaw is that the tattoos

are missing where all my injuries were.

| look in the mirror more closely. The jagged scar, the one that defined such a significant part of my life;

the one | received from the witch's silver blade that pierced my skin and allowed her to steal a part of

my liver. It's like it was never there. | look down and run my hand over the area in disbelief. | had

outlined that scar with my fingers countless nights, committing it to memory. It's not there. My skin is as

smooth as the day | was born. | lift my gaze to the mirror and look again. This can't be real.

| take a step closer and lean into the mirror further. My eye goes wide. The scar across my eye socket

is gone. Only the slit of my eyelid remains. | almost don't recognize my face without the scar there.

| don't understand. | mean, | know it's because Kas healed me, but it didn't occur to me that it would

remove all my scars.

"Baby, you're amazing!" | hear the shock in my voice. | look at her through the mirror to see her sitting

back on the bed, looking a little pale and sleepy.

"Yeah, Sweetheart, | mean you're gonna need new tattoos but yeah, your body is as good as new," she

smiles weakly.

| sit on the bed and take her into my arms, pulling her into my lap, being careful of her back. | push her

hair back from her face and kiss her forehead. She smiles up at me, then her sleepy eyes close and

she starts snoring lightly.

| tuck her into bed and get myself a glass of water. As | sit there | felt a slight pain behind my missing

eye. | swear for a split second | can hear Saint, but then he is gone. | close my eye and search my

mind for him, trying to mimic the feeling when Kas was healing me. He is still far away, but it feels like

he is one step closer than he was before.