Page 186 of Revels on an Angel’s Grave

“What do I have to do to cross it?” Roremar smirked, and she knew all he wanted was to get her out from behind her wall. To feel like he had her even if it was fleeting.

“Should I make grand commands or wishes on the stars?” Emmeline teased.

“Do, and I’ll do everything in my power to fulfill them.” His tone was so serious, it stole her breath. It wasn’t their lighthearted banter. This spoke of more. More than she could give him no matter how hopelessly she longed to.

She didn’t want to hide, but his stare saw too much of her for it to only be temporary. And she didn’t want to give him more until she could give him everything.

Emmeline sighed, tipping her face to the fading stars.

Roremar brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, following her gaze. “What are you telling them?”

The hole in her heart from watching his family twinged.

Eyes stinging, stars blurring, she whispered, “What if she doesn’t want me?”

His thumb traced her cheek. “Who?”

“My sister. What if I find her, and she doesn’t want me? What if she’s angry with me for being the reason she was taken?” Tears broke over her lashes so slowly she barely noticed.

Roremar swallowed as her words hit him, as if her fear was a physical blow. He tilted her gaze down so she couldn’t hide from him. “I don’t know how she couldn’t want you, Em. With how much you’ve loved her all these years?” He bowed his head, his waves dropping over his brow. “If I could have Nico back for even a moment, I’d be—there’s not a word for that happiness.”

When he lifted his gaze again, they were only inches apart. Emmeline couldn’t stop her stare from dropping to his mouth. Her breath from hitching at the brush of his thumb across her bottom lip.

“I feel him in every single minute he’s gone—the hurt and the love. You may not have seen her in over twenty years, but she’ll have felt you. She’ll know the love you’ve been pouring into the world for her, seeking her out. She won’t say no to that.”

His words spoke to the fears at the base of her soul. Her breaths were coming short and fast with each, splintering the game they were playing, reminding her that she desperately wanted all these parts of him she’d seen tonight. That right here, in his arms, was the one place in the realm she’d ever truly belonged.

Belonged.

“Roremar,” she whispered.

I love you because…

She swept her tongue across her bottom lip, grazing the pad of his thumb, and the slight contact went through her like a lightning bolt.

Roremar tracked the movement, every place his eyes touched igniting. Gently, his thumb swept in the wake of her tongue, and she gasped.

His molten silver stare lifted to hers at the sound. In that gaze was a man ready to break. To bend and bleed and succumb for even a taste of her.

His desperation seeped into the air, along her bones and the very pieces of her soul that had been scarred so long ago. With only a touch and a look, he mended those wrecked pieces and rooted something even deeper within her. Something she’d never be able to remove—something she’d never ask to.

But with the desperation came the fear, the guilt. The knowledge that while she longed to scale this gap between them, she couldn’t be that selfish with his life. His family needed him—that was more evident than ever with their arrival. She wasn’t giving up on saving him yet.

And to kiss him would be acceptance.

To kiss him would damn them both.

As always, Roremar read every heartbroken emotion across her features. He exhaled, the breath across her lips a promise they held themselves in for one more minute, in case it would be their last.

“Not tonight anymore,” he whispered.

Emmeline swallowed. “Not anymore.”

“We should go soon,” Roremar whispered. “There are temple ceremonies with the District Governors today and a sparring competition afterward.”

“And Graves will be looking for me if I’m not ready in time.”

Roremar backed up a step.