Elemental: Dartmoor Redux

It's the first time anyone has called him that in fourteen years. He wonders how she still can. Tom is a memory. All that's left is a monstrous shadow of him.

"Yes?"

"I don't want to go to Narcissa's. Not yet."

His jaw becomes hard and stiff. "Where, then?" he says, but really, he already knows.

"Dartmoor. Please."

He doesn't want to. He wants to leave Dartmoor as it was. He doesn't want it tainted with what they've become.

"Please," she says again.

He doesn't have the heart to say no. Seeing what they've done to her has left him too demolished for that.

"All right," he says grimly. He feels suddenly, inexplicably tired and sore.

They don't kiss as they land this time, but they fall against the same tree, her palms cradling his face. His arms are hard around her despite himself. Their foreheads rest together, hard, pressing into each other as if trying to meld into one being by sheer strength of will.

"I'm not what I was," he grinds out.