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“I seem to recall that it was the night following this particular tea outing that I first noticed some of my dream dust missing, which means you didn’t start stealing from me untilafteryou thought I’d gotten a Pair.” His lips twitched and his entire expression was elated, as if this was the best news he’d ever received. “That sure changes things. I suppose I can forgive you now.”

My jaw tightened at his unfortunately all too true deduction. “I wasn’t doing it because I wasjealous, if that’s what you think; it was all for revenge.”

“Revenge because you falsely believed I could possibly move on from you so easily?” His previously cheerful expression softened into such tenderness. “Oh Eden, how mistaken you are.”

My cheeks flamed, if possible, even hotter, all while I embraced his words and held them close. I leaned against his hand still caressing my cheek, both hating my weakness in giving in so easily and feeling utter relief in finally allowing myself to respond to him in the way my heart had needed to ever since we’d met.

Encouraged by my response, Darius attentively caressed my cheek, his emerald gaze never once leaving mine. “I’d have been jealous, too, dear Eden.”

I jerked away from his alluring touch and narrowed my eyes, still not fully willing to trust his sincerity. “You’d have been jealous if you’d seen yourself in the company of another woman? Are you seriously that conceited?”

He chuckled lightly and I basked in the sound. It had been far too long since I’d heard his laugh or felt its warm effect on my heart, far more wonderful than I remembered.

“It’s true I am rather awesome.”

He came closer, bridging the distance my stepping away had created between us. He was now so near I could feel the warmth emanating from his body and smell his intoxicating caramel-apple scent. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to bathe in it. I shivered as his heated breath grazed my ear.

“I only meant that if I’d seen you in the company of another man...I suppose this means that despite your determination to pretend otherwise, youdostill care after all. I can’t even express how happy this makes me, dear Eden.”

His lips tickled my cheek as they lowered to brush along my jawline. I moaned and leaned closer, needing to close the distance between us. My heart was not only beginning to thaw, but I now realized it’d been missing this entire time. Only now that I was with the one who possessed it did I completely feel it again.

Darius ran his fingers through my lilac ringlets in a similar way I’d enviously watched Blaze doing to Trinity earlier. As he stroked my hair he leaned closer, and I stood on tiptoe to meet him. Our lips were only a mere centimeter apart when...

“What are you two doing?”

I gasped and leapt away, but Darius wrapped his arms securely around my waist and kept me close. Mother, Blaze, and Trinity stood along the edge of the clearing, gawking at the two of us in a mixture of shock and disgust.

“Darn,” Shade muttered. “And things were just starting to get good.”

I peeked shyly up at Darius and was pleased to see he looked as disappointed as I felt, although admittedlydisappointmentwasn’t a strong enough word for my own fierce annoyance at the worst-timed interruption...as well as the fear of what Mother would do to either me or Darius to prevent our becoming paired.

As if sensing this and aching to comfort me, Darius’s hands moved to rub the base of my back. His disappointment transformed into hardened suspicion as he narrowed his eyes at Mother, who glared at him with a similar look of intense dislike and distrust.

“It’s time to go, Eden,” she said acidly.

Rather than immediately obeying her like I knew I should, instead I instinctively nestled deeper in Darius’s warm embrace. Now that I was in his arms again and I realized the Universe hadn’t attached him to anyone else, this was the place I very much wanted to stay.

“Eden,” Mother hissed. “It’s time to go.Now.”

Darius’s hold around me tightened, but nothing could deter Mother’s blazing determination. She stomped over and seized me in a painful grip to yank me from Darius. “Say goodbye, Eden,” she said as if she were teaching a toddler manners.

I frantically tried to maintain my hold on Darius’s hand, but it slipped away as Mother severed this last connection of ours with another painful tug, once more separating me from the man I could never stay with for long, no matter how desperately I wanted to.

Chapter 17

For the second time that day I was abducted for a private chat, only this one was far less welcome. I couldn’t believe Darius and I had finally come together again only to be interrupted, as if the Universe was conspiring to tear us apart rather than bring us together like I desperately desired.

As Mother led me away, I glanced back for one final glimpse of Darius. He stared longingly after us with a look very much like he was going to follow and rescue me, but at Shade’s urgent whisper and her firm hold on his wrist, he reluctantly watched me leave.

Without him coming after me, I resigned myself to my fate and allowed Mother to drag me back home, Blaze and Trinity trailing behind. The moment we descended into the parlor, she turned her wrath on me.

“What were you thinking, Eden? Wandering away from Blaze and Trinity—”

“We weresoworried,” Trinity said, acting as if I was a toddler who’d wandered off from my babysitters, which was undoubtedly what Mother considered them. Any earlier hints that Trinity possessed any empathy towards me had vanished, leaving me wondering whether I’d imagined her amiability.

“—and being caught withhimof all Nightmares?” Mother shook her head. “After all he did to you, for you to further entangle yourself with him will cause nothing but trouble for you; I don’t want to see you getting hurt.”

Now probably wasn’t the best time to bring up the fact that not only did I know of Bolt’s involvement in my suspension, but I was also aware of the fact that Mother had put him up to it. The sting of such a betrayal was nothing to her wrath should she learn I knew of it.