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“Youhavebeen keeping track,” Leif said. “Do you have time to come for a sparring lesson tomorrow? They’d be thrilled to see Lady Fightbringer.”

“I might.”

She strode up the steps, sat on the armrest next to Thane, and crossed her legs. He noticed her hands folded neatly on her lap, and the way she was slightly turned away from him. Without thinking, he lifted his arm to touch her back but then he caught sight of the lily mark on her shoulder and reached up to tuck his hair behind his ear instead. Maker, it killed him. He’d forgiven her for Talon, for everything she ever did, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that their union was doomed. That he could be her end. That fate destroyed them once and it would do it again.

“Can you give Layala and me a moment, please?”

Piper and Leif gave each other a quick glance and left without protest.

“I want to continue our conversation from earlier.”

She turned to face him with an eager smile. “Alright.”

“I have memories flooding in my head with you and him… it’s driving me mad.”

“But that isn’t now. You need to realize that.”

“I feel like I’m going insane as flashes of another place, of people I can’t really remember hit me like a punch. It knocks the wind out of me sometimes.”

He slipped his hand into hers and rubbed his thumb across the knuckles. When he looked at those bright blue eyes, the sea of dark hair, he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to call her Valeen, to want to associate her with Hel and Runevale. In his mind, she wasn’t the young elf maiden he’d met nearly a year ago, driven to end their mate bond then giving all of herself to him. She was someone he’d known for years, most of which were spent in another male’s arms while he watched longingly from afar.

“I haven’t been sleeping with you because I can’t sleep, and when I do it’s full of dreams that make no sense to me.” Or worse, nightmares of Hel and Valeen together.

“You can talk to me, Thane.”

He lifted his head. “But you don’t want to hear it. You clam up and try to change the subject every time I bring up the past.”

“Because it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does.” He shoved up off his throne, fisting his hands at his sides. “Don’t you remember anything? I think you’re keeping things from me.”

Layala stood, narrowing her eyes at him. “No, and you know why? I don’t want to remember being his wife, alright? I don’t want to feel conflicted like you. I don’t want to think I ever cared for the Black Mage. I only want you. I’m more than happy to listen and hear about the places you remember but not him.”

“So, the real reason you’re off looking for the Black Mage every night isn’t because Valeen wants to find him because she misses him? Becauseyouwant him?”

Layala’s face shifted from understanding to pure venom. “How dare you say that to me.”

With a boom, the doors flung open, and crashed into the wall. A cool wind swept inside, pushing Thane’s loose dark locks away from his face. The hairs on the back of his neck stood and instinctually, his magic flared up, pulsing under his skin with an intense heat. The two guards dropped to the ground, sprawled out unconscious. On the floor, a shadow appeared in the doorway, followed by footsteps. Thane’s body tingled and tensed, sensing a powerful magic and the threat of it shot his heart rate up. No power, not even the force Layala conjured against the dragon prince in the north rivaled this.

With his arms swaying at his sides, and not a weapon in sight on the fine-tailored black suit with red whirls down his chest, a cloak flowing out behind him, Hel stepped into the entryway with a smirk. Thane gulped and the memory of his standing beside him in battle flashed across his mind’s eye again—“You’re my brother. I’ll always come when you ask…she’s mine so stay out of my way.”A small part of him wanted to walk forward and grip his hand and jerk him into a hug but the more dominant emotion made his hand twitch to reach for his sword.

This was not his brother, not anymore. This was the male who wanted to take Layala from him. The Black Mage who created the curse on the elves, destroying countless lives, and the reason Thane had to kill his own father.

As if oblivious of them, Hel looked around, first at the high stone arches above, then the stained-glass windows filtering warm light. He inspected the navy-blue tapestries and the red carpet that ran to Thane’s throne. Then his gaze fell directly on Layala. “Hello, love. I heard you’ve been searching for me.”

Chapter5

LAYALA

“Oh, did I intrude on a lover’s quarrel? You wouldn’t be fighting about me, would you?” the Black Mage smiled as if it brought him great pleasure, and Layala was certain he’d heard every word of the argument she and Thane just had. About him.

Maker above.

She swallowed hard, watching him move with the grace and lethality of a cougar. In the cover of darkness, under the guise that she might be able to find his location and they’d make a plan with the advantage of a surprise, she felt confident, but there was no catching him off guard now. She felt like a rabbit locked in a cage and the hunter came to collect. The time in the tower came flooding back. He’d taken full control over her, and she couldn’t even move unless he allowed it.

It was like the air was pulled from the room, making it hard to breathe, to think until the Black Mage set his garnet eyes on her, inspecting every inch, from her loose ebony curls to the glittering slippers on her feet, and then their stares met and it felt like her heart stopped and started all over again. For a moment she wasn’t afraid. It was like seeing the sunrise after only witnessing the dark, or the nostalgia of coming home after years of being away. He smiled at her as if he too might be feeling the same thing.

Her body temperature warmed, creeping up her neck and spilling into her cheeks. He was the kind of beautiful one didn’t see every day, not even in Palenor amongst the elves, and the way he inspected her made her feel stripped bare. And his power, like a weight pressed against every inch of her flesh.