Chapter 6
Emma couldn’t help but smile as she studied the books that lined the walls of Stephen’s study, and those that were stacked in tidy piles on every level surface of the room. Yes, there were the required ancient texts in languages nearly dead, saved from extinction only by generations of sorcerers and the students who followed them, but hidden in the corners were collections of poetry: Rumi, Rossetti and a slim volume of verses written in the last days of the Great War. “My copy of Shakespeare, the one I would read to you, when you couldn’t sleep. Lorde, Bishop and Adrienne Rich,” she whispered as she ran her fingers along the spines of the books, a tiny burble of amusement in her voice. “Has the great Stephen Strange become a feminist at last?” She flashed a grin at him, then stilled as she saw the pain in his eyes, she had gone too far.
“I had time to learn. Too many years spent searching for answers in those books you kept trying to get me to read.”
“Some years hold only questions.”
“You always liked your riddles and mysteries, didn’t you, Em?”
She turned away from his searching eyes, and drew in a sharp breath as she noticed the tree of blue butterflies that resided in the dark shadows of the room, illuminated only by the sparkle of their iridescence in the late morning sun that filtered through the windows. “My blue morphos. They found you.”
“They kept coming. Every morning on the anniversary of the day you left and again on my birthday. It didn’t seem possible, they aren’t meant to be here, Emma, and yet -”
“Here they are, as are you. Where you are meant to be, where you were always meant to be, Stephen. There are some things that cannot be explained away. I couldn’t explain it even to myself. I had never questioned what I was to do, what my role was supposed to be in this lifetime, until the day you arrived. I knew you. From a long ago time and place, I still don't know, but you are my other half. There were moments when I felt your thoughts before you even thought them, at first, being your friend and confidant was enough for me. I had my work to do, but then London fell, and New York - if I had been with you in Hong Kong, I could have, I don’t know, I should have found a way to help you, you weren’t ready, you were just beginning to learn of the powers you had. But I was too late, and then you came home broken, and it was my fault…” Her rare blur of words came to a sudden halt as one by one, the butterflies left the tree and encircled them as Stephen took her hands in his and smiled kindly at her confusion, then her slow realization.
“Stephen?”
“You saved me from myself, and then you were gone. I searched for you, but over time I thought if you wanted me to find you -”
“I believed if I left you, I could find my way back to myself, and you would become the sorcerer you were destined to be. But one day, one of my butterflies returned to me, and I knew that my place, my heart belonged here with you. I only hope you will forgive me.”
Stephen shook his head then conjured a delicate bracelet of woven gold and placed it on her wrist. “Will you be my partner in all things, no matter where or when we are called to be, will you stand by my side, Emma until time ends?”
She swore under her breath as she felt the tears begin to slide down her face, but nearly burst into laughter as Mina wiped them away for her. “As you wish,” she whispered, then grinned up at him before kissing him for the first time.
“Yes, Stephen.”