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“Yes,”he rasped.

Aleron jumped in front of him to bounce around.“This is fantastic! We have a bride!”

A random and completely surprising growl burst from him.“Ihave a bride,”Ingram snapped at him.“Find your own.”

Aleron paused and tilted his head.“We cannot share?”

“No. She is mine. Obtain your own.”

Guilt tingled the nape of his neck, but he couldn’t contain the way fury choked him at the thought of Aleron touching Emerie the way he had. Inside, on such a deep and profoundly intimate level. Her smells, her sounds, the very temperature of her skin... all of these were his to experience.

He didn’t wish to share that with Aleron.

“You cannot share a bride,” Weldir chimed in. “Either one of you would be left out of the bond, or you would split the soul in half and destroy it while trying to share it.”

“Then...”Aleron lifted his head to the spirit of the void, in a way that was slow and unsure.“How do I obtain one?”

“Here? Impossible,” Weldir said, turning the fragments of his face that were visible towards his kindred. “However, I am hoping that not all is lost for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t have an answer for you right now, but I do suggest you begin interacting with the humans that are here. Perhaps your bride is already among them.” Humour lifted into his tone as he mused, “You may yet steal another soul from me.”

Weldir’s open-ended and cryptic answer shoved both of them into silence as they pondered it.

Had Ingram been right all along?

Is there... a chance for Aleron’s return?

When Ingram first came to the end of the tether, he’d been confused that it was connected to the back of someone who was obviously not Emerie.

The ghostly figure had been masculine by what he could tell of their height, physique, and stance. Even their hair was short and somewhat spiking around their head.

However, it was the high-pitched giggle beyond them that, while distant, was familiar.

The fucking male had been standing in the way!

The tether had been going through his form to reach her.

Hope had warmed his sternum as he stepped to the side, only for it to... wane.

This wasn’t Emerie. At least, not the female he knew.

And the most heartbreaking part of it was that she stepped away from the spirit she’d been speaking to, started walking as they followed, and passed through him as though he wasn’t there. Even though he felt nothing, a cold shiver still crawled through him when she evaporated into his body, only to turn solid behind him.

She didn’t look entirely the same, yet he knew her voice, the shape of her face, her height and figure.

It was just... altered.

He couldn’t help following her, creeping beside her while wishing his hand constantly reaching out to her would make contact. That she would turn to him and smile in greeting. That she would... see him.

Her peel of laughter as she held a basket of food, speaking with her companion, only echoed a yawning loneliness within him. How could she appear so... happy here without him? So carefree, as though he hadn’t mattered at all.

Her smile was bright, her expression cheerful.

How was he supposed to disturb her eternal rest, if it was apparently so pleasant without his presence?

“Why is her face different?”Ingram asked, noting that it looked younger, livelier, and unmarred by her burns.“The Witch Owl told me she would be as I last saw her.”