Drowning with Fire #3 ✔

Chapter 12 - Ember

"Are we going to talk about why you're out here in the first place? I mean, clearly it wasn't a social visit." Theo questioned me as we stormed out of the woods – well, he stormed off and I struggled to keep up with him, finding myself jogging a little.

After biting my lip until I tasted blood, I let part of the truth slip out. "It's kinda hard to explain..."

"Or we could talk about how you've been sick for the past day and a half, huh?" Theo asked incredulously.

I forced myself to keep my mouth shut, knowing I couldn't bring myself to explain.

"How about we talk about you and me?" Theo stopped walking abruptly, causing me to almost crash into his back. He faced me, lines furrowing his forehead. "How about we talk about how we're falling apart?"

My jaw dropped open before I quickly snapped it shut, knowing how idiotic I'd look. Not even for a moment had I thought he'd bring it up – especially not now, in the middle of the moors.

"How about," Theo stepped closer to me, hazel-blue eyes gazing down at me, an indescribably emotion concealed within them "How about we talk about how I'm not sure if you truly love me anymore..."

"Theo..." I found myself speechless; he was finally letting down his guard. "You can't seriously be asking that now–" My words faltered to a stop as I witnessed Theo's face dropping before me. He was serious, and he was seriously asking me that right then.

I didn't even have to ask myself if I still loved him; I knew it in my heart.

"Theo... After I died and came back in Montana," I began, drawing myself closer to him and resting a hand on his cheek. "You were the only one that mattered. In death, there was no one else that I'd rather be with. Why were you doubting my love for you?"

He shrugged a careless shoulder, "Maybe because it felt like there was this distance between us..."

"When people have unfinished business when they die, they come back as ghosts and spirits, right?" I raised an eyebrow at him, "Well what if Phoenixes need a reason to be reborn?"

With his eyes locked intently on mine, he nodded, "Keep talking."

"You were my reason to be reborn. It's hard to explain, but because you were the one who scattered my ashes, and because you wanted me to come back so badly – I knew I had to waken." I drew myself closer to him, pushing past the barriers both of us had been building up. "If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have been able to return."

"I don't ever want you to leave me again." Theo whispered quietly.

Something had changed between the two of us, and I was trying my best to convince him I still loved him – regardless of that something.

Turning around quickly, I leant against Theo, grounding myself in his presence.

"I don't know how to prove I love you without showing you." I explained quickly, before taking his arms and wrapping them around me. Guiding a hand up, I placed it firmly against my steadily beating heart. "I love you, Theo." I told him truthfully. "Can't you feel how my heart beats for you?"

"Do you still love me?" I asked after a few moments of silence, finding myself beginning to question what Theo was really asking me.

Theo grabbed hold of my shoulders and quickly whirled me around to face him. His arms encircled my lower back and held me close – I'm not the only one trying to bridge this gap.

"Ember," Theo rested his forehead against mine, his mere proximity making my heart flutter and my lips tremble ever so slightly. "Ember Hestia Milburn, you will be the one and only being I love so wholly for the rest of my life." He smirked softly, "Though, considering you're basically immortal, it's okay if you don't devote your undying love to m–"