I’d gone over that night countless times.
We’d been making love against the tree and the whispers ofthe dead had faded, giving me peace to indulge in pleasure, but...as I orgasmed, something smashed against me as if it’d been flung out of the veil that I couldn’t see beyond—almost as if it’d been cast out or...died.
The awareness of the soul went from hazy and barely there to strong and loud anddetermined.It’d latched onto me and the moment Lucien came, his energy flared with life-giving fire to the soul that’d attached itself to me.
With a crack of lightning, that soul found a home—in a body exactly like the one it’d left three hundred years ago.
Come on...I ordered Lucien silently, balling my hands as I scanned the crowd of people going about their day. Just because the buildings, vehicles, and way of life had changed, people were still people. They still bustled about with errands and chores, still met their friends and explored.
Every day that Echo sat purring in the sun with Whisper proved wehadbeen able to bring back a soul from the night we destroyed the mountains and it drove me to find more. To do it all over again.
And that was why we were here.
Because Dillon’s hazy energy tugged me in this direction.
A little girl darted past with white-blond hair, barrelling into the arms of a pretty young woman. “Mama, look! Papa bought so many things he can’t carry them all.” She pointed past us.
Lucien wrapped his arm around me, tugging me out of the path of—
“Ooof, sorry.” A man bumped into me, his arms full of packages. Juggling them so they didn’t fall, his chin tipped up and our eyes met.
We both froze.
My mouth fell open, and a flash of recognition flickered across his face.
But then he frowned and shook his head, acting as if he hadn’t recognised me at all.
“My apologies, I should really watch where I’m going.” He leaned in, searching my gaze. The intensity of his stare tore right through me.
The world fell away.
Three hundred years vanished in a blink.
My heart pounded as my eyes filled with tears and I knew without a shadow of a doubt if Whisper was here, he’d tackle this man to the ground and never let him go.
“Dillon.”
Lucien stiffened. “Holy shit...it’s—”
“Wait...” The man who looked identical to my bodyguard blinked, unable to tear his eyes off mine. “Do I...do I know you?” He frowned again, causing lines to feather around his eyes. “You look crazy familiar.”
“I’m—” I cleared my throat, doing my best not to burst into grateful tears. “I’m—”
“Elas?” the woman called. “Everything okay?”
The trance broke and the world resumed.
The busy marketplace flowed around us, and I finally understood.
The veil I kept seeing—that hazy curtain I couldn’t touch? The souls hidden behind it weren’t dead. There was a reason I couldn’t hear or summon them because the ones unreachable werealive. Reborn. Reincarnated. Living an entirely different existence without any need of my tampering.
So that’s why we couldn’t bring the others back, Lucien murmured, following my thoughts as always.They’re currently alive.
And that’s why Echo suddenly appeared.I never looked away from Dillon.Because she must’ve died in her other life and heard us calling her.
“Yes, everything is fine.” Dillon smiled at his wife as his little daughter charged back and tackled his legs. “Hi, Papa.”
He grinned. “Hi, little snowflake.”
