“No, she’s not!” he said. He leaned down and pressed kisses to her forehead and her cheeks. Still, she did not move. Then he felt it, the small bottle in his pocket. He quickly withdrew it and uncorked the vial.
He ripped her dress open, then poured the elixir over her gaping wound. The blood dripped down her skin as it mixed with the water.
Nothing.
Max parted her lips and dropped some of the elixir into her mouth. Still, he heard no breath.
“No, damn you. Not now. You can’t leave me now. Sabine, damn you. Wake up. Don’t you know that I love you?” Max leaned over her body, laying his face on her chest. He heard nothing—no pulse, no heartbeat, no breath. His own heart seemed to stop, his breath caught, everything stilled. “I love you,” he said again.
He lay there for several minutes, ignoring the cries of her aunts behind him.
Something ruffled his hair.
“I love you, too,” a soft whisper said.
He leaned up. “Sabine?”
Her eyes fluttered open, and she coughed several times.
Then she winced. “Oh, that hurts,” she said.
Max laughed, not caring that he had tears on his cheeks. He looked down at her wound and already the bleeding had stopped. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“It was the only way.”
“But you heard me?” he asked.
“Of course.” She gave him a weak smile. “A woman always hears when a man tells her he loves her. I would have heard that no matter where I was,” she said.
“And where were you?” Max asked.
“I was still here. Barely, but still here. You gave me life again.”
“No,” he said.
“The elixir.” She nodded. “I know you took it from me.”
“I was a bastard to betray you like that,” he said.
“Yes, you were.”
“Once I figured that out, I hurried back here.” He squeezed her hand.
“So you didn’t give it to anyone?”
“I gave it to you.” He showed her the empty vial.
“You sacrificed your dream to save me,” she said.
“You’re my dream.” He shook his head. “I was too stupid to realize it, though.”
“But what of your lifelong goal? The ultimate proof of Atlantis?”
“You’re lying here bleeding all over my expensive rug, and you’re going to argue with me?” he asked.
She gave him a weak smile. “I just want to make sure you know what you want.”
Her steady breathing and strong heartbeat brought new vitality to him. For the first time in years, he felt truly alive. He kissed his way across her face. Blood still oozed from the wound on her cheek, but it was beginning to clot. “There is nothing I want more than for you to be my wife.”