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She wasn’t trapped there. It couldn’t happen.

“Valeen.”

Then her eyelids fluttered, and a wave of relief hit him in the chest. It took a moment, but her eyes flashed open, and his crashing heart slowed. “How are you feeling? Do you hurt anywhere?”

She reached up and touched his face, curling her fingers against his cheek. “My Zaurahel.” Goosebumps peppered his skin. Hearing his full name on her lips always sent a tingle down his spine. “I feel just fine. No pain. Thanks to you.” She looked down at herself then inspected him. “Why are you still bloody and dirty?” She sat up against the headboard and tucked her legs to her chest.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“And your magic is… suffocating.” Her blue eyes sparkled as she glanced around the room. He didn’t even realize how dark it was here. His magic had taken the form of darkness to match his mood and shut out the sunlight from the windows. “You’re still very angry. What happened after I blacked out?”

“Nothing.” He’d only just about lost his mind at how close she came to dying.

“Well, you stink like the dead.” She scrunched her nose, and that pulled a chuckle out of him.

That raging anger fueling his magic began to simmer and the sunlight filtered in. Frowning, she reached up and touched his broken wing. “Hel, why haven’t you healed yourself? Do you need my blood again?”

The bones were almost back as they should be, but it was still obviously misaligned in a few places. “I deserve to suffer.”

That frown turned into a scowl. “Are you out of your mind? Heal yourself or I will, and I know you don’t want me cutting myself and driving a dagger to inflict pain to do it.”

That was something he simply wouldn’t allow her to do for him. With a snap of his fingers, his dirty clothes were replaced with a crisp black suit. His wings vanished and any injury he had was gone. He ran his hand through his clean hair, pushing it out of his eyes. “Better?”

She smiled and crawled over to softly kiss him on the lips. Then she straddled him and positioned herself nicely on his lap. “Yes.” She surprised him by suddenly wrapping her arms tightly around the back of his neck. “I was so scared. Not even of death but of leaving you, forgetting you.” She nuzzled her face below his ear and inhaled. “I just got you back and I never want to forget, not even your smell.”

The tension coiled in his body relaxed and he rubbed his hands up and down her spine. His throat was uncomfortably tight. Only she could ever get him emotional like this. “I’m sorry I let that happen. It shouldn’t have happened.”

She started to breathe easier. “Remember the night you confessed you loved me?”

“The first or second time?”

She pulled back, smiling. “The first.”

“Certainly.” He brushed a stray piece of her raven hair off her forehead. He’d known long before he ever spoke it aloud, worried that if he said it, it would all slip away. He’d never really truly loved anything before her, and it scared him that she hadsuch power over him. “I half said it the day at the restaurant when you grabbed Lily by the throat and threatened to turn her into an empty shell.”

“Yes, but you said ‘IthinkI’m in love with you’.”

“I know what I said.” He’d wanted to say he was in love with her, every part of her beautiful mind, soul, and body but he didn’t just yet. “You looked stunning in that tight silver night dress. Your hair was up in a loose bun, and I’d thought about pulling the ribbon and letting it fall a hundred times. We’d stayed up all night playing cards on top of your bed. Every time one of us lost a game we had to confess something real. You’d confessed your dream of opening an art gallery with art from the best artists from every realm, but you weren’t ready to open House of Night to the worlds yet. You were scared of what could happen. You’d never told me you were scared of anything before that. Then I lost the next… On purpose. Because I wanted to say it, but I needed a reason in my mind to confess. See, I was scared of that goddess, of the power she wielded to crush me in a moment with a few words.”

He heard Valeen’s heart skip. He’d never told her he lost on purpose.

Hel thought back to that exact moment. He had been sweating, his heart was beating so hard it was like he’d been sparring for hours. Every muscle had been taut, but he also felt like he could float into the sky.

“I leaned closer to you. I think I just couldn’t help it. ‘Come on, you lost, confess something’, you teased. ‘Fine, if I must confess something, it will be that… I’m in love with you, Valeen. I’ve been in love with you. And I can no longer picture my life without you in it.’” Hel chuckled to himself remembering the look of surprise on her face. Even now at this moment Valeen had that same expression. “And you said?—”

“You love me? You’re in love with me?” Valeen said and nuzzled her nose against his. “And you said,” she lowered her voice trying to mimic him, “‘yes, I love you. Why do you think I call you ‘love’?”

“I never used that term for anyone else then.”

“And you better not now.”

He chuckled. “Never, love.”

“And then what happened after? Remind me.”

Hel smiled. “Well, you made me sweat. You stared at me for a good minute or so. I thought I was about to leave heartbroken until you climbed onto my lap, lips inches from mine and said, ‘My heart has been closed for a long time, but you made me see that it was safe to love. I love you too, Zaurahel.’ Things got hot and heavy after that. I wanted you so much I felt like I was on fire, but you said I had to wait to have you to test my devotion. Even though I know you wanted me.” He squeezed her thighs and let out a low growl.

She giggled. “I did. It was hard to deny myself of you that night, and all the others until our wedding day. But you made it worth waiting for. These are the things I never want to forget again.”