“No, Liam. You haven’t. You couldn’t have known how things would turn out. None of us knew.” She laughed. “I mean, did you ever think I’d be here in the Shadowrealm, fully manifested? And that I’d find a way back to my own realm? Did you ever think I’d be free of Jonathan? That Ronan and Darius would be here with us right now?”
“No, I suppose not.”
Her eyes turned mischievous, and she lowered her voice. “Did you ever think we’d kiss?”
“No,” I whispered. I felt myself blushing, desperately wishing I could tell her how badly I wanted to kiss her again. How badly I wanted to take her in my arms like I’d seen the others do so many times, like it was the most natural thing in the world. How badly I needed to know that it meant as much to her as it had to me. That there might come a time where I would look upon her face and see the same look in her eyes that I’d seen that day on the beach.
But I knew that time would never come. Not for us.
“There’s something you need to know,” I said. The time had come. I could put it off no longer. “I’d always meant to tell you. I just… I truly thought we’d have more time.”
“What is it, Liam? You know you can tell me anything.”
I smiled softly, wrapping a lock of her hair around my finger. It was such a simple gesture, but it reminded me what it was like to be alive. Truly alive.
“Your hair is like a sunrise,” I said. “Like pure golden light.”
“Okay, now you’re scaring me.” She laughed, but the sound of it was tight and nervous, nothing like the beautiful music I’d grown to love.
Tell her, you fool. Tell her before it’s too late.
“Gray, I need you to understand something about me. I’m not—”
“Liam. Gray.” Darius emerged from the woods. “Ronan is ready to open the hell portal.”
I nodded once, then turned back to Gray. The last of the pool’s ice had melted, and now the runes glowed brightly.
It was time.
“To be continued?” She stretched up on her toes, pressing a soft kiss to the corner of my lips. “When we get back?”
When we get back.She’d said it as if there was a place where we’d always belonged together, where I’d always been part of her life. A place where we’d be free to get to know each other. Maybe even fall in love.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it didn’t exist. Not for us.
“I… Of course. To be continued.” I squeezed her hand and returned her gentle, trusting smile, hoping against the odds that I’d have the opportunity to explain everything before it was too late.
Hoping I’d have the opportunity to confess.
To apologize.
And to beg her forgiveness, in this realm or the next.
Thirty-Two
Emilio
“This isn’t just some black market fae magic Jonathan picked up on the streets,” I said to Elena. “Darkwinter are working with the hunters to hybridize supernaturals and create large-scale magical weapons. They’re planning an all-out war.”
My sister set two mugs of coffee on the dining room table, taking the seat across from me. It was well after midnight. I’d just returned form my disastrous meeting with Talia, and she’d just returned from her office, but neither of us would be getting any sleep soon.
“The situation is serious,” Elena said. “Finding the witches and the other hostages is paramount. Solving the murders is paramount. As is keeping an eye on the hunters and fae in the Cape.” She sipped her coffee, then met my eyes across the table. “But let’s try to keep things in perspective, Emilio.”
“What perspective?”
“One devil’s trap is hardly a large-scale magical weapon.”
“No. It’s a prototype. As are his experiments. He’s torturing witches and supernaturals in order to create some kind of…supersupernaturals.”
