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I instantly saw Aaron behind my eyelids, pulling me down, but I stilled my heart and remembered Adrian’s hands on me, and that I was here with him.

I opened my eyes and watched the darkness surrounding me, the faint glow of the fireflies dancing above the water’s surface, inches above me.

And then I saw hands reaching toward me.

Death’s hands.

But it wasn’t Death.

It was him.

I’d know that pull in my chest anywhere now.

Adrian brought us back to the surface, and I sucked in a deep breath, looking at him. “It was Leo,” I whispered. “Leo saved me.”

Adrian’s stare was piercing as he set me gently back onto my feet.

I thought he might kiss me, his eyes dropping to my lips, his teeth biting at his own.

But then his eyes softened, making his face look younger, and he shook his head. “I wish it had been me,” he whispered, before walking out of the water, taking the heat of his body with him.

CHAPTER TWENTY

LEO

Ithought about my last encounter with Bryn in the study, and the way my magic had felt against the heavy drum of her pulse. The pounding intriguing my essence in the most tantalizing way.

Her desires had been loud and clear, matching mine. The longing to kiss her making me a starving man.

But I’d held out, concentrating solely on the unromantic decision she had to make about her future, the seriousness of the matter making me stronger than I’d thought I would be in such a confined space with her.

But, if I had kissed her, I could be honest enough with myself that it wouldn’t have stopped at her mouth; the taste of her too much to resist.

I would’ve succumbed to the yearning inside me, trailing my lips over the rest of her face, down the length of her poised neck, and across the length of her gorgeous collarbones.

My fingers would have found their way inside her mouth, the feel of them against her tongue working her up so thoroughly she would’ve begged me to plunge them deep inside her, the feel of my fingers against her core causing me to drop to my knees so I could hear her cry out my name, my mouth guiding her to the decision I wanted her to make.

So, regretfully, I hadn’t done any of those things.

Bryn needed time to think, to process everything.

She needed to choose what her future was going to be with a clear mind, and I needed to be okay with whatever decision she made, even though I wouldn’t be.

The only choice that would be okay was the one where she chose me.

Where she stayed on One, with me.

I finished my last set of push-ups and grabbed two daggers off the wall of the roof, my body shaking with need as I attempted to distract myself with a workout, my third one today.

It was almost nightfall, which meant I had another half hour to expel my lunacy before I needed to leave.

This past week, Bryn had been spending her afternoons with Sigrid down at the stables, and visiting the greenhouse some evenings. But at night, she’d been coming up to the roof to stare at the stars.

I’d tried not to spy on her, only cloaking her from a distance when needed for her protection. But sometimes I couldn’t help myself, watching her under the cover of night.

I found the middle of the night the hardest time to stay away, once everyone had retired to their rooms. The floor of stone between Bryn’s room and my own was nowhere near enough to block the ceaseless need for her—the craving in my chest at its hungriest.

I left my room often during this time, seeking refuge elsewhere, so I wouldn’t travel down the stairs to the floor below and sit in front of her door, eventually falling asleep upright, my head resting against the wood.