Page 95 of Realm of Dreams & Shadows

And he damn well needed to tell her all of it.

Not just that he loved her—though hopefully that would soften the blow—but all of it.

He needed to rip off the bandage, open the door, unbottle the genie, or whatever lame saying worked.

Bottom line, he needed to fucking grow a pair and tell her that he’d killed her ancestors one by one. That he’d killed her mother. That he was dutybound now to kill Cora herself.

And that there was no way in hell he was going to do it.

But damned if he could work up the courage to confess all to her.

The irony wasn’t lost on him. Gage Chasen. A man who wasn’t a man at all. A man who’d been tossed into existence—albeit not in this form—at the same time as the universe. A man who’d seen—literally—everything and then some. Who’d done most everything.

And now all he wanted was to see her body beneath his. Those eyes looking up at him. Cora.

She was his, dammit. Despite everything he’d done for centuries on end, despite every way that he’d stung her, betrayed her. Despite dispatching each and every one of her female ancestors, none of it mattered because she was his.

He’d never loved before. Hadn’t thought himself capable. And he’d certainly never expected that love could hurt.

But it did. Like a stake through his heart. Like a stain on his soul.

He should have told her all of it. The horrible truth, coupled with the depth of how she made him feel. The joy, the fear, the all-consuming need.

He should have told her.

Hell, he would tell her.

First step? He had to confess the truth about who he was. She’d hate it, but she needed to know.

And then he’d tell her the rest of the truth. About how he cherished her. About how he would keep her safe even if it cost him everything. Everything, that is, but her.

He stood, intending to head over to Hamilton Hall. No time like the present for true confessions. Instead, he froze as one of the stairs leading up to his door creaked. He eased closer to the entrance, every cell in his body on alert. He heard a soft knock, then relaxed. A mare wouldn’t knock. And no one on his team would drop by without contacting him first.

Another knock, louder this time—and that’s when he caught the scent. It cut through him, setting his body on fire, and he threw the door open.

“Hi,” Cora said, her hair slightly mussed and her eyes red-rimmed. She looked fragile and fierce at the same time, like she might shatter or set the world on fire.

He wanted to yank her inside and bellow at her for walking alone at night. But he couldn’t. Not now. Not when it felt as if his longing had conjured her.

He opened the door fully in invitation, but she didn’t move.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said, hugging herself. Her words came fast, tumbling over each other. “And okay, I just—I needed to—” She pressed her hands to her face. “Can we talk?”

Some small voice of reason said that he needed to push her away. That his plan to go to her was idiotic, and he’d already crossed too many lines where this woman was concerned. But she was here, as if in answer to a prayer. Or like fate. And Chase knew better than to fuck with fate.

With a nod, he stepped to the side, and she brushed past him, the feel of her arm against his nearly enough to make him lose all control.

He managed to pull his shit together, then closed the door and turned to face her.

She was looking at the sofa bed and the mess of tangled sheets.

“Cora?”

She turned to him, her cheeks adorably pink. “So, yeah. Um, I had this dream,” she managed, the words tumbling out. “That kind of dream. Adric was there. In his library. And we—god, Chase, he kissed me. And I—well, I kissed him back.”

As his whole body went tense with the urge to pummel his brother, she looked at the ground. He was about to speak—though he had no idea what the hell he was going to say—when she lifted her head and whispered so softly that no mortal could have heard her, “And I liked it.”

“Oh,” he said, his gut twisting. He could remember dozens upon dozens of times when he’d been furious with his brother.