Broken Antler Fen well I'mma go down on a railroad track

He remained as still a statue—his eyes studying her, unreadable. Champagne and murky met water-logged aqua. Two daughters, she further explains. Another stab—just like their two daughters.

The true knife, though, was her words next—I waited as long as I could for you.

Incredulous, almost, he numbly stared at her. Words couldn’t even form—so many things he wanted to say, and he just couldn’t even feel his tongue, which sat like dead weight in his very dry mouth. A flash of ivory—the angel that had pulled him from the tumbling waters and to safety. Who had insisted he stay, when he was determined to get back to his family.

“I counted the full moons as they passed,” he muttered, clearing his throat as he try to rid the hoarseness that pressed at him now. “Four. Four long moons, Ibis…”

He braced himself. Steeled himself for another wave of her tears, trying so hard not to add his own to the mix. He swallowed. “I waited for you,” was what he offered then, looking away, the words almost ripping from him like a snarl as he suddenly straightened, his tongue lashing against his teeth as he tempered himself.

But he knew—his eyes sought her out again. Could he really fault her for this? She probably had assumed he had died—he was never supposed to be gone for so long. “I fell. In the water, when looking for Arielle. I was saved when another pulled me out of the waters. She tended to my wounds as I healed.”

He paused, loosing a sigh. She wanted him in her life, still? He regarded her, just wanting nothing more than to find their old den and pull her close to him. Claim again what was his—and then curl up with her tucked against him, as she should have always been. Not in the arms of another man. “Who is he?”