Page 155 of Forbidden

As I feared, it is destroying him.

And as I feared, it will destroy me.

It is too soon, my dark warrior, my love, heart of my heart…too soon.

And it is too late.

Slowly Amber looked past Duncan to the three warriors watching silently, held in check by no more than the upraised hand of a Glendruid witch.

When Amber saw the silver pin glittering on one man’s mantle, she knew she had lost her gamble. The past had overtaken Duncan.

And the name of the past was Dominic le Sabre.

“Let go of me,” Amber whispered.

It took Duncan a moment to realize that Amber had spoken to him. When he would have answered, her hand lifted, sealing his lips.

“If you would remember the past,” Amber said shakily, “you must first let go of me.”

Why?

The demand was silent, but as clear as a spoken word to Amber.

“Because you can’t have both,” she said simply.

Why?

Amber closed her eyes against the pain coiling more tightly through her with each breath. She had suspected the truth even before she had given herself to Duncan beneath the sacred rowan. Suspected, but not known.

She knew now.

Too late.

“Because you can’t truly love me until the shadows are gone,” Amber whispered, “and when the shadows are gone,you won’t love me at all.”

Her hand dropped from his lips. Knowing she shouldn’t, unable to resist, she brushed her mouth over his.

“You make no sense,” Duncan said, searching Amber’s shadowed eyes. “Your fall addled you.”

“Nay. It made me see clearly how I have wronged you in the name of protecting you.”

“Wronged me? What nonsense. You called me from a terrible darkness.”

Shaking her head slowly, ignoring the slow fall of her own tears, Amber forced herself to give Duncan what no longer could be denied.

“Let go of me, dark warrior. Your past is all around you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let go of me,” she whispered.

Puzzled, Duncan opened his arms, releasing Amber. She sat up and would have stood, but knew her legs would refuse to take her weight.

Like Duncan, she was at war with herself, knowing what must be and rejecting it at one and the same moment.

“Now that we aren’t touching, do you see?” Amber asked starkly.

“I see only your tears.”