Between Lifetimes
So this is what it feels like to have your heart ripped out, Luthe decided. She had said that she would come back, and he believed her, he had no choice but to believe her, but. . . there was an ache in his chest which would not fade, which would not allow him the freedom of a single day without remembering Aerin. The thought was childish, melodramatic, unworthy of them both--she would come back to him, she had promised--but knowing it to be so did not help Luthe in the slightest.
She would live a lifetime as another man's wife; she would be a Queen and a mother to people Luthe did not care to know. She would come back to him, still Aerin, still the woman he loved, but different. He would love her, always, truly, and yet, he could not keep himself from doubting.
Luthe set himself to the task of waiting; and resigned himself to the ache in his heart.