[SE] the things that you do in the name of what you love

ISLA

Isla is in Remi's arms the second he reaches for her, the Remedy all but melting against his chest, forehead pressed against the faded chambray of his shirt. "All I want is for him to be happy," she whispers, the words muffled against him and sounding both quieter and louder thanks to the cocoon of tawny wings that come to wrap around them. And ultimately, with a god's blessing about it and every avenue explored to understand the infection, Everest is happy, and Isla can't and won't be the one to take it away from him.

"Gods, why'd you have to come and stand on my doorstep and do this?" she complains, and although the bittersweetness of her feelings all but rolls out of her everywhere they touch, there's the faintest of smiles in her voice. "I just wanted to have a day off at the beach."

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood