It was all I could do to shield Gray from the impact as we hit the ground, my head spinning.
“Beaumont!” Ronan shouted, but I couldn’t see him, barely registering the motion of his body lunging for me. Someone else scooped up Gray, and I bent forward and pressed my forehead against the snow, desperate for something—anything—to numb the pain.
Useless.
My body shook, head to toe, the tremble so violent I bit my tongue. Blood filled my mouth, and the walls inside my mind burst like ancient dams, ushering in a flood of disconnected images and sounds and scents, each one unlocking another and another and another, slicing through me like hot blades. Arms and legs wild with spasms, I roared into the night, unable to contain the torment, certain my ears were bleeding.
“Darius? What’s happening?” Someone was at my side, a warm hand on the back of my neck, another flat on my back. Ronan’s? Liam’s? I had no idea. There was only the torture unfolding behind my eyes. Only the haunting howl of a thousand ghosts inside my skull. Only the taste of Gray’s blood welling up from within.
Only… only memories.
I managed to get to my knees again, and clamped my hands around my head, desperately trying to keep my skull from exploding. A flurry of images and sights and sounds poured unbidden into my mind, imprinting themselves all at once, disconnected and fragmented, but… butmine, I realized suddenly. Every last one of them was mine—flashes of the life I’d lived and lost, the lifetimes I’d rebuilt in the decades and centuries that followed.
Memories.
Memories of my wife and children, the family I’d mourned on so many long, lonely nights.
Memories of my brother, my turning, the anger that had burned like hot coals inside my chest when he’d stolen my mortal life.
Memories of friends come and gone, of careers, of homes.
Memories of everything I’d once loved.
And then—impossibly sweet, impossibly precious—memories of a brand new love, unfolding as gently as a spring bud, then rapidly growing into a flowering vine that had somehow crept in behind my walls and blossomed, wrapping itself so thoroughly around my heart I could scarcely remember a time when it hadn’t been part of me, nor I part of it.
Gray. My witch. My little brawler. My vampire. My queen.
I remembered the night we’d spent in the cabin in the Shadowrealm, making love until we’d nearly no strength left in our bones, chasing away the cold with kisses and caresses. I remembered the heartbreak in her eyes as I told her how I’d been turned. I remembered the taste of her kiss, the promises inherent in each and every one.
I remembered the words she’d uttered so breathlessly at the mouth of the hell portal.
I love you, Darius…
I remembered my own words sliding into my consciousness, balancing on the tip of my tongue, desperate to be heard.
It seems I’ve fallen in…
The last had remained locked inside, stowed away as we came under attack from the demons that would steal my memories—memories that had just been returned to me.
Gray had saved me in all the ways that counted—then and now.
Her blood, our connection… she’d been right to trust it.
I would never doubt it.
My love for her knew no limits, no bounds, and deep inside me, that feeling expanded endlessly, chasing away the worst of the pain, steadying my hands. I was falling, experiencing each moment with her for the very first time, again and again and again.
“I’m in love with her,” I announced, my tears turning to laughter as I felt the force of that love hit me full on. With Ronan’s help, I got to my feet, swaying against his side. I was unsteady, but suddenly I felt unstoppable.
“For fuck’s sake, Beaumont.” Ronan gave me a shove. “We thought you were dying, asshole.”
“Ah, but I was. And now I’ve been reborn!” Again I laughed, bordering on maniacal, and grabbed his shoulders, hauling him in for a fierce hug. “You don’t understand, demon. I fell inlovewith her. I know I did.”
“Yeah, you and me and everyone here.” He pulled back and narrowed his eyes at me. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“More than you know, friend,” I said. “Irememberit. All of it. All of you!”
Ronan glared at me a moment longer, then his eyes widened as the realization finally dawned. He gripped my arms, a smile cracking his stoic face. “You’re shitting me. You fucking remember?”
