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“No,” I say and shake my head. “After I took your memories, and realized I’d stolen all of them, I took you back to my palace and I kept you there because I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to care for yourself since you had no idea who you were or what happened. And while you were in my custody, I came to you numerous times. We spent most our nights together but it was always the same in the morning—you would never remember anything.”

“That must have been… frustrating for us both.”

“To say the least,” I answer as I smile down at her. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to feel you again. There were somany moments when I wanted to come to you and I wanted to ask if you felt anything towards me.”

Something shifts between us and she lifts her face as if she wants me to kiss her. So I do, I wrap my arms around her and pull her into me, then I drop my face and take her lips. She opens her mouth and I push my tongue into her, loving the taste of her.

“I’ve missed that,” I say when I pull away.

My hands brush her sides, moving up to cup her breasts as she gasps. I dip my head low and steal another kiss and this time, she thrusts her tongue into my mouth. The kiss is devastating... slow and sensual, deep, and filled with so much emotion that her faint glow becomes almost blinding. My hands slide higher to tilt her head to the perfect angle so I can taste her tenderly.

She’s exactly what I remember.

“I need you, Cambion,” she whispers. “I’ve needed you for a very long time.”

“To feed the lightness within you,” I say.

She nods. “I need you to keep me balanced.”

The light around us swells as the blood rushes to my erection. It’s been too long since I’ve felt her heat, the wetness of her body. Eilish’s arms wrap around my neck and I lift her higher, pressing her against the side of the watch tower. She gasps, and I swallow down her sweet sighs. And when she pulls away, I feel like I’m floating in a vat of raw emotion.

“I’ll give you whatever you need,” I say.

And just when I think she’s going to give in to the fever between us, she takes a deep breath and stalls me with one hand. She closes her eyes and I watch her pant.

“I,” she starts. “This is all happening too fast,” she finishes.

She pulls away, placing several feet of distance between us.

“Eilish?”

She shakes her head. “I need time, Cambion. All of this is so sudden and I can’t help but think of everything that’spassed between us and the truth behind…” she doesn’t finish her sentiment but I understand it, all the same.

She can’t give herself to me when she hasn’t forgiven me.

“There are things I need to focus on, and I can’t do that when my judgment is clouded,” she says but I realize the words are just an excuse. She can’t have sex with me when she’s still blaming me.

“I still have anger and pain where… you’re concerned.” She offers me a sad smile.

“I understand,” I say as I take a few steps away from her, to show that I’m willing to give her the space she asks for.

“Lady Fulthain!” someone calls, and Eilish leaves me standing there, feeling as if I’ve failed yet again. I don’t know how to make things right but I desperately want to. I need to make things right but I’m not sure if that’s even possible anymore.

There are things I wish I could take back, but then I wouldn’t be here with her now. One day, I wish for her to look at me the way she does Baron and Dragan. Or even Pyre.

My feet carry me to the Hall of Clans, where several of the chieftains welcome me graciously. One in particular offers me a place in his clan if I’m not deemed worthy to be part of The Vindication. Imatriat of the Thradsaryl says he once knew my mother.

“The Seelie Queen was a great friend of the humans before the dawn of the modern world. She mentored me in ways that prepared me for the Singularity,” he explains. “Sadly, my spells were not as powerful as her own, which is why the event turned me into this. I was once a king. Now, I’m a wraith fighting in a war that seems impossible to win.”

“I thought it was hopeless as well, but Eilish showed me things can be different,” I say. “Already she’s struck a significant blow to the enemy, one from which Morrigan won’t recover. Ifwe continue to apply pressure, the Midnight Queen’s plans will fail.”

“And what of Abedon and Silvanus? They’re no less treacherous.”

“You’re right. Silvanus is no saint in all of this,” I say. “He’s just as manipulative as Morrigan, but at the moment, he’s against her—and that makes him useful. As for Abedon,” I continue, “may the gods help us, should he rise from his tomb.”

***

BARON