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I’m the first through the portal and a sharp wave of dread lances through my body. Why are we here? Why is Eilish here? This place holds very little happiness, filled with agonizing memories that are sure to harm her more than do any good.

“What the fuck?” Baron shouts. His voice echoes through the mountain.

Dragan punches the vampire in the arm. “Good job alerting whatever’s here that we just arrived.”

Pyre stands between them like an irritable father. “Enough fighting. Eilish is here for some reason, and we need to get to her before she discovers there are darker things on this mountain than the four of us.” He shoves them down the worn path, where the prints from Eilish’s boots are still visible.

But I sense something else. Morrigan. She’s near.

“I feel weak and I won’t make it up that mountain. I still need to heal,” I say on a breath. “You go without me; I’ll make sure nothing comes after you.” It’s not a lie, but it’s also not the truth.

“We aren’t leaving you so you can flee as soon as we turn around,” Baron says.

“I’m in no shape to go anywhere,” I answer.

Pyre nods. “Theren speaks the truth. Were he to try to escape, he wouldn’t last long.” Then he walks over to me andplaces a hand on my shoulder. He closes his eyes and I feel his magic swirl around me.

“What are you doing?” Dragan asks.

“Ensuring our friend does not try to voyage any further than ten miles from this location,” Pyre answers.

The others say nothing more and simply follow Pyre as he begins the long walk up the side of the mountain. I watch until they disappear behind a cluster of trees and then I enter the small hovel where so many of our destinies became entwined.

Footsteps approach from behind me, and I recognize the sound of her heartbeat whenever I’m near. She doesn’t expect me. I never wanted to come. It’s been years since I last saw Eilish. So many that I fear she doesn’t remember me.

And yet I sought her out, trying to ignore the raging beat of my own heart as she comes closer, wings dragging on the ice. She sits beside me on this felled tree where we shared our first kiss. The snow falls gently to the ground.

“I thought you were dead,” she whispers.

I chuckle bitterly, flinching slightly when she rests her head on my shoulder. “If my father had his way, I would be. The Midnight Queen saved me…” I look up at the unforgiving sky and wonder how it is that we’ve come to this. “I can’t stay long.”

“I come here to think about you often,” she says.

“Oh?”

“The young man with golden eyes…”

I can hear the smile in her voice and I swallow past the lump in my throat. She lifts her head and forces me to face her. She’s too close and yet still so far away.

I shift uncomfortably and she wraps her wings around us. “I miss you, Theren.”

“There’s nothing of worth to miss.”

“I don’t believe that.” She entwines our fingers and I feel her warmth as potently as I feel the sun shining down on us aswe sit beside the lake. “Tell me what happened. Please? Tell me what kept you away for so long. D-did your father hurt you?”

“You don’t want to know, Eilish.”

“I do,” she whispers. “Please, let me heal you.”

“The wounds that cannot be seen are ones that cannot be healed.”

How right I’d been that day. Those wounds left behind by my father left me achingly fragile inside, broken in a way my soul could never repair. Physical pain I can endure, but the mental scars that collect within my mind are irreparable. I’m broken.

“My father has always hated me because I showed promise when I was very young. My magic was more powerful than his before I could walk, even though he’d all but succumbed to the darkness. Whenever he got angry at Cambion, I stood up for my brother. I took the beatings and the torture.”

Her faint gasp grates on my nerves as I don’t want her pity. I pull away, moving to stand so I can look out at the frozen water. “This time, I couldn’t fight him off. I was dragged down into the dungeon and held there without food or water for so long... When I refused to break, he summoned me to him...” The breeze swallows my voice and the quiet echoes between us for a few seconds.

“Theren?” Eilish asks in a soft voice.