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“I came to say goodbye.”
Noa’s looking at Mae with those bewitchingly human eyes as green as the emerald and the trees surrounding them.
There’s a wariness on his face. He no longer trusts her as he used to, not after what she did, and rightfully so. Mae would feel the same if she was in his place.
What surprises her is the begrudging affection in his eyes. The way Noa looks at her and speaks to her as if he still considers Mae an ally, if not a friend. It leaves her utterly stunned for a moment.
“Was he right? Can ape and human live together?”
He’s speaking of a world where they live side by side, a world where she stands beside him even after everything she’s done to him and his clan. Mae can hardly comprehend it.
“I don’t know,” she says, her voice breaking.
Her hands shake with trepidation as she runs them over the trigger, and Mae pictures a crueler world where she silences his sweet voice forever and watches the life fade from his bright eyes.
But it’s almost unthinkable. Her heart aches at the mere thought, and not for the first time, Mae wonders how the hell an ape succeeded at doing what no one else had.
Somehow, with nothing but a few gentle words and an act of mercy, Noa had thawed Mae’s cold exterior. He had crept into her heart and stolen off with it.
And now she was at a loss, standing before him with her soul bared open and a gun behind her back.
Mae imagines what he would do if she pulled the gun out and lifted it to his head or pointed it at his heart. Would he still look at her with affection? With trust even?
Or would it be with betrayal? Noa had stared at her with such desperation before when she held his life and that of his clan in her hands. Mae wielded all the power then, just as she does now. Just as her kind once had and was always meant to have.
Mae wonders if she could make Noa leave with her, and she almost wants to try, to pull out the gun and order- no plead him to come away with her.
Fortunately, her momentary fit of insanity clears as Noa rips Raka’s pendant from his neck and holds it out to her.
“Important,” he whispers.
Noa’s captivating eyes stare into her own, and Mae takes her hand off the trigger.
She can’t even bring herself to think about Raka and his caring nature. The loss is like a fresh wound. Tears stream down her cheeks, and her hand, the one that held the gun, trembles as it reaches for the pendant.
Their hands meet for a fleetingly wonderful moment before they pull away, and Mae leaves Noa there, taking her tortured heart with her.