Chapter 231

Pain. Audrey couldn't seem to focus on anything else. Images flickered through her mind, fragments of memories, and she struggled to catch the pieces. A ship sailing to France, a quiet inn, soldiers, an explosion, a moonlit cliff, a drawn knife, a shot in the darkand then pain. So much pain.

And then something else. Something greater.

"Please, my love, come back to me."

That voice.

It was as though she was trapped in a place between breaths, a world of memories and sensations.

Flashing green eyes, soft curved lips, a soft chuckle intended only for her.

Air filled her lungs in a gasp.

The glimmer of light upon water, the splash of fish in the pond, the rocking of a boat. Another deep kiss to satisfy centuries of longing.

A slow breath escaped her lips.

"I love you."

Those words were forever carved into her heart. They could never be unsaid. But now she was suddenly too afraid to face the man she'd said them to.

"Her breathing has evened out." A different voice spoke somewhere