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“Isn’t it beautiful?” she asks.

“Yeah, it’s great,” I grumble and then shake my head as she pulls her attention from the sky and faces me.

“You have no idea what you’ve been putting me through,” I groan.

She appears perplexed. “What I’ve been putting you through?”

“I can’t take my fucking eyes off you,” I confess. “If that fucking goat weren’t here, I’d have already had you at least three times by now.”

She looks over at Kolvar and smiles. “Don’t tell him your nickname for him,” she whispers.

“You’ve grown, Eilish,” I say in serious contemplation. She turns to look at me and there’s surprise in her gaze. “I used to think of you as innocent and naïve, but now I realize you’re far from it. You’ve impressed me.”

“Thank you, Dragan,” she says, her grin broad. “To hear you say that means a lot to me.” She leans against my shoulder as the last of the daylight is chased across the sky by an ebony sea of clouds.

Stars twinkle above our heads. Though it’s not as vibrant as the churning galaxies of the Veil, it’s beautiful nonetheless. Pale moonlight illuminates the regal features of her face and reflects against the white ocean of her hair.

“I know something’s bothering you, Eilish,” I say, my voice deep.

She tenses immediately. “Nothing’s bothering me,” she says.

“I know you well enough to know when you’re bullshitting me,” I respond. “Not to mention, you’re a terrible liar.”

She tilts her head slightly and toys with the loose thread at the cuff of my sleeve. The temperature begins to drop, and I wrap my arms around her to keep her warm.

“Some things are better left unsaid,” she whispers.

“Tell me.”

She’s quiet for a few seconds. “I don’t want secrets between us, Dragan,” she says. “But I’m worried about how you’re going to react if I tell you…”

“You need to trust me and be able to speak your mind,” I say. “We can’t have secrets between us, no matter how difficult they might be.”

She takes a deep breath and looks up at me, those blue eyes swimming with unshed tears. “Baron and Pyre,” she starts and then swallows the words. She takes a deep breath and nods, as if she’s encouraging herself. “They both had me the other night.”

I feel my stomach drop. “They both fucked you?” I ask, not intending for my words to sound angry but I’m fucking pissed off as much as I am shocked.

“Yes,” she says.

“How?”

“What do you mean?”

“How did they both fuck you?” I demand.

“Does that matter?”

“It does to me.”

She swallows and doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. “They were both… inside me at the same time.”

I nod and feel my anger swell. My hands fist at my sides. “When you went to the spring?”

She nods.

“And no one told me.”

She appears perplexed. “I… Maybe they didn’t feel as if they needed to tell you?”