War, Love, and Riddle //Mattheo Riddle x OC

Chapter Nine - Soul Meets Soul On Lover's Lips

Some souls don't collide, they simply recognize each other. There's no explanation that fits. No language strong enough to hold the truth of it. They tether to you quietly, invisibly, as if they'd always been there. And suddenly you're no longer whole without them.

Emma and Mattheo stood in her room, the silence thick enough to hear each other's breathing. Neither dared to look away. His gaze drank her in with the same reverence he always carried, but tonight something shifted. She wasn't just the girl who haunted his thoughts. She was the thing his heart had been searching for all along.

The realization unsettled him. He was in love with Emma Potter. Not just want, not just need, love. The kind that rooted itself like wildfire and left no part of him untouched.

Emma exhaled a shaky breath and stepped toward him. The clock on her nightstand caught his eye. 12:40. His lips curved faintly.

"It's November first," he said.

Her eyes widened. Understanding hit, and the tears came fast. He caught her face in his hands, brushing them away.

"Damn it," he muttered, voice raw. "I shouldn't have said it like that. I've ruined tonight."

She shook her head, a tearful laugh breaking through. "No. For once... I didn't let the day swallow me. I felt happy. Because of you."

Something in him cracked. "I love you," he whispered.

She froze. Her lips parted. His pulse thundered.

"I love you, Emma Potter," he said, firmer now. "Maybe I always have. It feels like... like some invisible string's been tying me to you since the beginning. I'm yours, in this life and whatever comes next. I'll find you again and again until the world stops turning."

For a moment she only stared, and terror sank its teeth into him. But then her hands rose to his cheeks, and she kissed him. Soft, deliberate, devastating. His chest ached with how much he needed her.

When she pulled back, her voice trembled. "You don't understand. I've been yours from the very start. I've tried to fight it. I can't. You feel like the piece of me I was born missing. When I'm with you, it's like my soul whispers, there you are. You're mine. I'm yours." Her eyes shone, steady on his. "I love you, Mattheo Riddle. In this life, and the next."

The world tilted. Relief and hunger tore through him at once. He dragged her against him and kissed her again, fierce and unrestrained. There was nothing left to hold back.

His hands slid to the back of her thighs, lifting her with ease. Emma gasped softly as her legs hooked around his waist, her arms tightening at his neck. He carried her slowly toward the bed, savoring every heartbeat, every brush of lips. Something had shifted between them tonight. Maybe it was weeks of pent-up tension, maybe it was the fragile relief of saying the words aloud..... but Mattheo knew with certainty: it was love.

He laid her down gently, raven hair fanned across the pillow like silk, green eyes looking up at him with unguarded affection. For once, there was no mask between them. Only this. Only her.

He hovered over her, bracing himself on either side. "Are you sure?" His voice was quiet, almost reverent.

She bit her lip, nodding once. "Yes." A whisper, but it carried everything.

That was all he needed. Her lips trailed along his jaw and down to his neck, where his pulse thundered beneath her mouth. Around them, the soft orange twinkle lights painted her skin in gold and shadow. He couldn't imagine anything more beautiful.

He tugged at the hem of her jersey, lifting it slowly, carefully. Their eyes stayed locked as he slipped it away. The clasp of her bra gave beneath his fingers, and when the fabric slid free, his breath caught.