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“Amor—”

“No,” I cut in, “I know the phrase. It’s just—how doyouknow it?”

“My dad used to say it. It’s about learning to make the best of what happens—transforming the unwanted experiences into something meaningful.”

I gaze at him in wonder. Our connection was undeniable from the start, no matter how hard I tried to fight it at first. But this—well, I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s too strange and specific to be a coincidence.

“What?” He shoots me an inquisitive look as he cups a hand to my cheek. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because my dad used to say it, too,” I tell him. “And what are the chances of that?”

Braxton’s gaze burns into mine. “Probably about the same chances as the two of us ending up here, in this gilded cage.”

A lovely rush of warmth blooms in my chest when his fingers find the talisman that hangs from the slim gold chain at my neck. The gift he commissioned for my eighteenth birthday. The blue lapis moon and the diamond pavé star nestled inside the fine golden cage act as both a symbol of us and our lives lived inside this snow globe–like fortress, and a sort of insurance against getting lost in a Fade—lost in time, never to return.

Like what happened to Anjou, and probably Song, and once upon a time to Killian, too. The idea of it is so horrible, I instinctively shudder.

“You all right?” Braxton smooths a hand down my arm, erasing the chills. And when his eyes meet mine, his gaze is so open, so caring, I know in my heart that either Killian is lying, or he’s completely mistaken.

Braxton just doesn’t have it in him to ever leave anyone stranded in time.

“Of course I’m all right,” I tell him. “I’m here with you, aren’t I?” I look him square in the face, and the weird thing is, I don’t even blush when I say it.

With Braxton, there’s no need for pretending my feelings either don’t exist or, worse, that he shouldn’t concern himself with them. And there’s absolutely no shame in showing up as my real, flawed, totally authentic self.

As for the L word… We’re not quite there yet. But, like everything else with us, there’s no rush. Here at Gray Wolf, we have all the time in the world.

Braxton lets go of the talisman and watches it slide down my chest, falling beneath the deepVof my silk camisole. Then he slips a finger under the strap, tugs it down past my shoulder, and presses a trail of soft kisses along the ridge of my collarbone.

Despite having kissed well into the night, kissing ourselves to sleep, I can never get enough of the warmth of his lips, the electric charge of his fingers questing over my skin.

I push closer, losing my hands in his soft tousle of hair. And when his mouth finally finds mine, my lips instantly part, surrendering to his kiss—to the heated thrum that begins at my core, radiates through my skin, and straight into his.

“Do you feel it?” he whispers into the kiss. “This energy between us. This frisson.”

“Always,” I murmur. “Always when I’m with you.”

I pull away, needing to see his beautiful bottomless gaze.

But instead of Braxton, I find the duke’s hideous face staring right back.

2

My mouth falls open, but nothing comes out.

My body is frozen, my throat closing in on itself.

“Tasha—” Braxton speaks in the sort of reassuring whisper you might use with a small child or sleepwalker. “Darling.” He places a careful hand on my arm. “Please—look at me.”

I want to, but I can’t. Not while there’s a part of me that’s still caught in the duke’s grip.

I haul myself up against the headboard, drop my head in my hands, and fight with all I have in me to will the duke’s image out of my brain.

No,I silently scold his arrogant face. Go the fuck away. You are dead to me, and I’m done talking about you—done thinking about you…

“It’s not real,” Braxton says. “You were having a flashback. He can never harm you again, never get anywhere near you. Arthur will never send you back to that timeline.”

It’s a few beats for my breath to grow steady and my heart to resume a more regular pace. And when I finally open my eyes to find Braxton keeping a close and careful watch over me, I’ve never been more determined to banish that stupid duke from my mind, whatever it takes.