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He laughed deeply, shoulders shaking, smile so big it reached his eyes. “That’s moreLailaof you.”

“Oh, no, it was a genuine question.” Sort of. It was also to see him smile. “Did you have some other bitches while I was gone? ‘Cause I guess I don’t blame you. A thousand years is a long dry spell. But all the more reason when you’re holding a naked woman, you should get hard.”

I expected an eye roll or a smart-ass comment. That was what the Jeremy I knew would’ve given me.

Instead, I got a kiss.

He pulled me so close that the water couldn’t even pass between us. His lips opened on mine, deepening with the arch of his hips into my pelvis. It wasn’t slow and gentle, but firm and passionate, taking in every pore of my skin, fingers tracing every part of my body that he could reach.

And then I felt something firm against my thighs.

“No one else,” he whispered. “Not once.”

Shivers of comfort washed over me. “You waited a thousand years for me?”

“I would’ve waited eons for you, mi lim.” Another kiss, this one softer than the last. “But fucking stars, I’m so happy it was only a millennium.”

CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO

VÉA

Once we showered, we got dressed. I threw on a pair of baggy sweatpants and a T-shirt at first. They were my usual daily attire for days off work. But when I put them on, they felt restrictive, bunching around my hips, bra pinching my ribs.

I found a sundress instead.

It was such a simple thing, but I felt so free in it. I felt likeme. I felt like Véa and Laila at the same time.

Throughout my life, or lives, rather, I’d gone through so many bizarre, almost indescribable experiences. But waking up with hundreds of thousands of years of memories from a life where I’d created Earth had to have been the strangest.

In this life, I was a mother, a wife, and a cafe owner. I was any person you’d see walking down the street. Strangers didn’t call out for me as I strolled through town, begging for a moment of my time, for a hug, or for eternity.

It wasn’t that I’d minded that as Véa. I loved being my peoples’ queen when I ruled Morduaine. I loved it less when I ruled Matriaza, but I loved what I accomplished there. I loved how much good I’d done.

But I’d always wantedthis.

I wanted to be simple, and now, I was.

That was all we’d ever wanted. When I was Véa, and Jeremy was Nix, all we wanted was normalcy. We hadn’t wanted to be the focal point of a thousand political battles. We hadn’t wanted to decide the fate of billions.

And now, we didn’t have to be.

For a while, at least.

The maalaichte cnihme would return one day. We’d defeat them, and then… Then we wouldn’t be so simple anymore.

But for now, we got to walk to the kitchen in our old farmhouse. We got to mix pancake batter. Jeremy got to plop it onto my nose, then grin and disappear before I had the chance to get him back.

We got to brew our coffee, and grab the newspaper off the porch, and let Tink out.

That was her name in this life. Tinkerbell, the husky mutt I’d found digging through our garbage behind my old diner. I remembered her now as Sany, the little fox Mirobhail had begged us to let him keep.

But before we let her outside, Jeremy collapsed to the ground beside her, and he buried his face in her scruff, crying quietly.

That confirmed that the bastards had, in fact, killed our dog.

Fucking cunts.

That anger turned to pain when I thought of Sadie.