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He brushed a lock of hair gently away from her shoulder. Lowering his mouth, he kissed her bare skin there.
“Exactly what I said,” he told her. “When do you think you are…”
“In the present?” she laughed. “Here. With you.”
Lucus shook his head. The stubble of his chin brushed against her skin.
“You’re back,” he told her. “Lost. With us. With Evermoore.”
“Lost?”
“For now,” he said. “Not forever.” His hands slipped around her, beneath her breasts. “Because of this.”
One palm moved upward, grasping the amethyst pendant that rested against her chest. The heart of Isolomara glimmered as he manipulated it.
“I— I don’t understand.”
“Look at the mist,” said Lucus. “See how close it gets? See how it creeps toward us, toward the manor?”
Melody nodded mechanically.
“It comes,” he said. “It always comes. Every time. It’s always the same.”
“Why?”
“Because it has to,” Lucus said. “Like everything else it has no choice. It happened before like this. Everything has to happen the way it always has.”
Melody stared out into the mist. She watched it churn, ripple, move.
“What happens when the mist reaches the house?” she asked.
“Then it ends,” said Lucus ominously. “And it starts over again… with or without you.”
He was fingering her pendant.
Never take it off…
Running his thumb over it, the way Eric had done.
While a guest of the Evermoore you will wear this… always.
“W—What’s with this?” she asked, closing her own hand over the big amethyst. “What does my pendant have to do with anything?”
Lucus slid out from behind her and stood up. Right away her body missed his warmth.
“Let me show you something.”
He crossed the loft and bent to swipe at a pile of stray and hay. When he returned, he was carrying a small wooden lockbox with iron hinges.
“Go on,” he said, holding it out to her. “Open it.”
Melody took it from him and placed it in her lap. Gingerly she opened it. As the lid came up she took one look inside and gasped.
“Exactly,” said Lucus, kneeling reverently beside her. “Now you know.”
21
Melody stared down into the little wooden box. Resting inside, on a dirty lining of red velvet, was an almost exact duplicate of the amulet around her neck.
