I think we just said "Good-bye"

                They were strangers; nothing more than a few stolen glances and coy smiles had ever passed between them.  Yet here they were, the Snakecharmer and the Elder Rose, standing face to face as though every moment had led to this.

“You believe me, don’t you?”

                It was so much more than a question.  It ached with a plea imploring her to look at him…to see him.  Even hushed as it was Anat could not mistake what she heard in his voice.  He took her hand, his fingers fiercely warm against her icy skin, and placed it over his heart.  It beat softly beneath her palm keeping a steady rhythm as she searched his face for an answer.  Any answer.  

“I need you to believe me.”

It was not in her nature to be trusting, but she did not need trust.  There was no denying the look behind his eyes because it was the same in her.  He was showing her his true face.  The one that was left behind when every lie, every facade, was stripped away.  It was naked and raw, intense and determined.  Devotion burned at the core of his being, a devotion that reflected back everything she had ever felt.  It was like looking into a mirror, brightness to her dark.

Marcus smiled.

“You do believe me.”

This time it was a statement.  He had seen the answer written on her features and yet she felt compelled to answer.

“Yes.”

In the thrum of activity around them her words were barely audible.  It didn’t matter.  For that moment their attention was only for each other.  He pulled back, catching her gaze again.

“Can I show you something?  Only you?”

Anat nodded and suddenly she was standing before Marcus Wells…a stranger.  Yet somehow that wasn’t true at all.  He gently kissed the back of her cold fingers, his lips touched with the barest hint of a smile.  In that moment she felt as though she knew him, truly knew him, and as he walked away she was left with the profound sense that he had just said good-bye.