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I hunched over, aware that if I just got out of the single shared bed, the dreamscape would end.

I almost did, until Duncan spoke again.

“Stay a while. Please, do it for me.” It sounded so much like him. My Duncan. How could I refuse him? “I’ve missed yousomuch, these days apart. The first chance I get to see you, hold you, speak with you, and you wish to run.”

As was normal with these dreams, I knew just how real they were. A place in which Duwar could haunt me, taunt me. Although it had been days since the last, I almost welcomed this one. Even if Duwar was presenting himself as Duncan to disarm me, playing pretend was easier than facing the truth.

“I missDuncanso much,” I replied, noticing how small my voice sounded in this space.

“Then lie with me.” He paused, fingers brushing down my spine, making me bend to his will. “Please.”

That single word broke through my shields.

I allowed Duncan to guide me down, until my face was pressed to his bare chest, his heart beating a rhythm through my cheek. Coarse hairs itched my skin, but it wasn’t unpleasant. I missed threading fingers through them, teasing my soft touch across the divots and mounds of his muscular build.

If I simply closed my eyes, I could play pretend like my tired mind wanted me to. So, for a moment of peace, I did just that. A soft hand began to stroke the back of my head, offering me comfort.

“When will you return to me? Home isn’t the same without you, Robin. It is quiet and empty. When you are gone, I forget what I am fighting for.”

“Soon,” I mumbled, words skittering across his skin. “I will be back soon.”

“Good,” Duncan exhaled with what felt like genuine relief. “And has this time apart allowed you to come to your senses about my proposal?”

That question alone told me who was speaking.

“It has,” I replied, unable to lie whilst my skin bristled at the reality of the demon I conversed with. “I know what must be done now. I finally understand.”

Reprieve practically unfurled from Duncan’s flesh, wrapping around me just as his arms did in that moment. “Your decision will save us. Me, Erix, you. We can finally be together. Then, with my power, you can shape the world into the very image of your desires. Anything you want will be in your grasp.”

“Except that isn’t what Duncan wants,” I said, finally accepting that I knew who I truly spoke with. “You speak on what you believe I desire, but you are grasping at crumbling straws.”

“Just as you think I do not know your desires, how can you speak on what Duncan wants if you too are not in his mind, his body?” Duwar purred. His faked warmth of Duncan’s skin faded, his skin turning ice-cold to the touch. “He understands that to love you, he must acceptallof you. That even includes everything you had before him.”

“Stop speaking to me as if the tongue you use has free will,” I snapped, but my body was immobile.

“Robin, you need this. You know you do, more so than ever. Have you not uncovered dangers that lurk in the shadows that you once mistook for light?”

“And what isthisexactly?” I asked, refusing to peel away and see the face of the god who looked down at me. I knew Duncan was no longer here, he never had been. But I could still pretend.

“A chance at life.”

“And you, God of Ruin, can offer that to me?”

Duwar’s laugh slithered over me, uncomfortable as the scales of a serpent constricting around my throat. “I am power, Robin, as I have told you over and over. I alone can offer you whatever you desire. If that is a life with Duncan and Erix, so be it. As long as you give yourself to me, the rest will fall into your open hands freely. This moment can be real, as real as the one you almost shared with Erix last night.”

I stiffened, breath catching. “Nothing happened between us.”

“No, perhaps not. But I see all. Through reflections, even in a body of water,” Duwar said, their voice blending back in with Duncan’s dulcet tones. It was in that moment I knew the sexual desire that arose in me during waking was not natural. Had I let my guard slip, complicit because I thought the room had no mirrors when, in fact, I was bathing in one made of water? Duwar’s control, its power, was written all over my deceit, and yet that didn’t dampen the guilt I felt toward Duncan.

“Think carefully,” Duwar continued. “Why else did Duncan arrange for you both to be together again? That was his doing alone. Because even Duncan knows, for success, you need him as much asIneed you. Erix is the strength you need to make the right decision. For Duncan, for Wychwood and Durmain. Do not let my power fall into the hands of those who would abuse it. Not again.”

No one willeverget this power again.

“Promises of the very creature who wishes to defile this world. Not of Duncan.”

“When will you learn? IamDuncan, he is me. An improved version of myself. Until you see the truth I am trying to show you, I suppose you can simmer in your distrust. Whether you believe me or not, I am only trying to help you.” The hand upon the back of my head continued to brush back and forth. “It’s clear to me now that you still aren’t asking the right questions.”

“About?” I choked.