Free The Knight Of The Rose by A. M. Hudson Page A

moment she lives, she will fly, and she
    will spread her beauty and her life through the tree tops, so t hat when her existence comes to an end
    as the sun goes down on her fi nal day, her spiri t will go on, and there will always be a beauti ful
    butterfly to carry on her name.” David str oked my sticky, soaking hair fro m my cheeks and held
    them; rolling my face upward until I looked int o his eyes. “I love you, and your spirit will go on. As
    long as you have happiness, I have everything I will ever desire.”
    “But what will you do? Where will you go?”
    “I am the rain.” He looked up at the sky, tucking my face against his c hest. “I ex ist each
    clouded day whether the butterfly flies or falls. A human life is but only a blink in the eye of eternity.
    I will go on when you are gone, I wi ll have no choice.” A silent pause allowed for the hum of the
    rain to become louder. “I wish I could promise to move on, but it would be a lie. The pain I will feel
    for eternity without you is a sacrifice I am willing to make to save you from forever longing, wishing
    you’d been given the chance t o live. I owe that to you. For the love I feel—I owe that to you.” He
    nodded once.
    “So that’s it? You’re making the decision for me?”
    “I have to, Ara. I’ve been watching, waiti ng, scanning your thoughts t o find some hint of
    promise for us, but you keep holding onto this—for what reason, I don’t know. You don’ t—
    anywhere in your thoughts—want to be a vampire, and yet you keep making me wait for your
    answer. And stupidly, I keep waiting, even though I know the truth.”
    I had nothing to say. The lonely eternity he must face broke my heart—but he mus t face it
    without me. Life is just too important. I’ve seen it in action; the beauty, the magic it has to offer, and
    I fear, if I give that up for immortality, I’ll never forgive myself, or worse, never forgive David. “Just
    give me two weeks more. For forever, please? Just let me have the last two weeks.”
    “Two more weeks?” He leaned back. “While you spend those days with another man? A man
    you happen to love.”
    “Please?” My tiny voice quivered. “Please?”
    David looked down at the ground, keeping a centimetre of distance between our almost naked
    bodies, and only one hand on my skin, against my lower back.
    With a loud breath, I blew out the pain of co mprehension. “Can you just hold me then—just
    for a little while longer?”
    David exhaled a hard breath and let my chest fall against his as I wrapped my arms around
    his neck—ignoring the small stones in the grass under my knees. His body felt cooler than it was a
    moment ago, and though the rain made me shiver and the shaded canopy did not shelter us from the
    icy air, my own body felt nothing of the discom fort that cold brings—only the breat htaking
    perfection of David’s well-formed muscles, and his strong arms holding me so tight—like I could
    float away on the breeze, or like this might be our very last embrace—ever.
    “Please don’t hate me f or loving him, David. I—I loved him for such a long time before I
    ever even knew you existed.”

    He took a long breath and squeez ed me a little tighter, pressing his chin into the top of my
    head. “I do know that. I just…I suspected it. I should have followed my gut.”
    “What would you have done if you’ d asked me, and I’d told you I loved him? Would you
    have left?”
    “That’s the stupid thing about all of this, Ara.”
    I leaned back slightly, despising the distance between our chests—and even more, t he
    disconnection between our souls. “What’s stupid?”
    “That, even if you had admitted your feelings for Mike—” he touched my cheek and smiled,
    “—I’d still have stayed.”
    “Then don’t leave yet. Give me the nights—for two more weeks. Please?”
    He shook his head. “You don’t even need to ask. You know I will.” He smiled down at our
    hips touching; the