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“We’ve been looking for that ring for a long time. It disappeared with the penumbra who wore it, long before the war. But the magic that links it to the Terra Court endures.”
It wasn’t like Oberon wanted to marry me. He was clearly already in love with himself.
“How does one perfect their sexy magic, exactly?” “Perfect? Are you calling me an expert?” “I wouldn’t dare risk inflating your ego any further by saying something like that,”
“Am I worth paying the price?” It was an honest question. I’d seen what happened to magic that had been broken. “Always, and it’s different with you…now…” He fumbled the words like he didn’t know how to explain it.
But this wasn’t someone. It was Cate, and if anyone had the right to question me about anything—from the weather to my intentions—it was my mate.
“Believe it or not, I have some self-control.” The way her throat bobbed suggested otherwise. “Not,” I said with a sigh. Keeping the truth from her was getting us nowhere. I took a deep breath. “You don’t have any self-control because of the mating bond.” Her eyes widened, and she took a shaky step backward, bumping into the wall. She braced herself against it as she continued to stare at me. Her heart rate sped up through the bond we shared. “Mating?” she said in a strangled voice. “You said we were married.” “It’s kinda the same thing.” It was not remotely the same thing.
I felt Cate in every atom of my being. She was as fundamental a part of me as the blood in my veins, my bones, my flesh. Every moment I wasn’t touching her was agony. Her taste lingered in my mouth. I craved her in a way that was so primal, I couldn’t remember a time I didn’t feel this way. She was my beginning and my end and every breath in between.
I was suffocating, and she was the air I needed to breathe.
“You can question my authority. You can question my decisions. You can even question our future, but you cannot question that. I love you.”
In the end, the root of all love was choosing whether to grow together or whether to grow apart.
“You look really serious.” “I think you’re supposed to look serious when your brother has been shot.” But she rolled her eyes. “My brothers get shot all the time.”
“All I’m saying is that maybe you need to romance her a little.” Roark and I shared a look. “Romance?” “You do know what romance is?”
You make a decision, and the future changes. The decision becomes the past, which is a lot easier for most of us to navigate because we can see behind us. I mean really, there’s no such thing as the future. Maybe that will make it less scary for you.”
I guess that is what someone who was raised human would call it. Her choice of words plagued me as I parked in front of the hotel, the questions it provoked chasing me up the Avalon’s steps. But there was one that kept circling back. What the hell did she mean by that?
“We’re going trick-or-treating. My city. My rules,” he said firmly. “And after, we’ll go to the séance.” “Everything sounded so ordinary and fun until the last bit.”
“Cate.” Warning laced his voice. His concern would be endearing if he wasn’t holding me on a cliff’s edge. I gripped the sides of his face and glared at him. “Nothing can break me. Not even you, Gage.”
She was made of stronger stuff than most of the fae I’d known for centuries. I’d suspected as much when she tried to shoot me within the first forty-eight hours she’d known me.
“Normally, I would take your hands for it. But since you knew who she was, I assume you want to die. There are less painful ways to meet your end, but none come swifter than touching what is mine.”
“Any last words?” Caleb met my gaze, eyes burning. “Go to hell.” I smiled. “You first.” I plunged the stake into Caleb’s chest, ribs splintering and crunching from the impact.
“You’re the only thing that chases the darkness away,” he whispered hoarsely, raw emotion coloring his confession. “You are the light in my world.”
“I don’t want to live without him. I never felt like I belonged in my own world or your world. I just belonged with him.”
