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And then, out of the shadows, Des appears, as though from a dream. He’s light and darkness, from the shadows that curl around him to the moonbeams that seem to illuminate him from within.

Fairies step out of his way, making an aisle of sorts for him to stride down. Silently, he heads for me, his white hair brushed away from his face, his jaw firm. Just like the first time I saw him, he takes my breath away.

“What is this I hear of a gift?” he says when he reaches our group.

He gently takes the delicate chalice from my hand. “Is this it?” he asks, pacing several feet away, his eyebrows raised. He brings the glass to his nose.

“Lilac wine,” he says.

Several people throughout the room gasp.

He gives Mara an approving smile. “Cunning as ever, dear queen.”

Ever so deliberately, he overturns the liquid, letting it spill onto the floor as he paces.

The room goes utterly silent.

I glance from person to person, trying to figure out what’s going on.

“You trod on my hospitality?” she says, an edge entering her voice.

“Perhaps you should think twice before you try to con my mate. Someone could get the wrong idea,” Des says, looking remorseless.

Iknewsomething was up with that drink.

Now Mara smiles. “And perhaps you should explain to your human mate why you refuse this most sacred and arcane of lovers’ rights. Or why she will die a mortal when she could’ve lived at your side for eons.”

Chapter 33

“All right, what is lilac wine?” I ask.

The two of us are back in our rooms, Des’s jacket thrown haphazardly across the table, his shirtsleeves rolled up to reveal his corded forearms, and my heels are kicked off, my hair cascading wildly down my back.

He leans against the wall, watching me, his arms crossed over his chest. “A drink.”

Awesome. Forthcoming Des has gone into hiding.

“You’ve got to give me more than that.” Both Mara and Des had almost lost their shit over the wine.

“Contrary to your opinion, I actually don’t,” he says, his eyes glinting in the dim room.

Frustrating man!

“Listen,” I say, “if you don’t tell me, someone else will. This is your chance to set the record straight.”

His arms drop to his sides, and he prowls forward. “Fine, you want me to set the record straight? Here it is, straight and clear: I have imagined giving you lilac wine athousandtimes.” He comes right up to me, and something about his agitated mood has me backing up. “I imagined slipping it to you just as Mara did, coaxing you into drinking it when you didn’t know any better.”

My back hits a wall, and Des pins me in with his arms.

“I’ve even had it prepared before,” he says, reaching out and stroking the column of my throat with his thumb. “I had it in my fridge back on Catalina Island, and I’ve had it on hand in my palace.”

“What is it?”And why do you have to be deceitful about it?

His jaw muscles clench as he wages some internal war between telling me or not. Eventually, he gives in to my questioning.

“Somewhere deep in time, fairies found a way to make their mortal lovers immortal,” he says.

His eyes look piercing,eager, as he speaks.