Page 77 of Deceiver

“What if I told you that meeting you is exactly what I needed?”

“I wouldn’t believe you. I don’t have anything to offer you. Besides, you’ve already said your life doesn’t work with a second person in it.”

“Keagan—”

“No, please. Don’t say things just to make me feel better in the moment. When you leave, it’ll hurt more. Another abandonment to add to the pile.”

Wilder’s face goes blank for a second, then a new emotion ripples across his features, like he just discovered buried treasure.

“Gods,” he whispers. “That’s what she meant. I see it now.”

“Care to clue me in?”

A smile tugs at his lips, but he just hops up, pacing the space in front of me and dragging his hand through his auburn hair.

“Wilder? What’s going on?”

When he turns to me, the look on his face makes my breath catch. “Talon had a message for me. It was powerful, and while I believe that was the message she heard, I was still working it out in my head.”

“Talon? What did she say?”

He walks over and sits next to me again on the couch, taking both my hands in his. “You believe in Talon’s abilities, right?”

“Of course. She’s the reason I was able to contact my dad’s spirit. I’ve seen what she can do.”

“So have I. Do you remember when I told you about Samuel?”

“The man you loved a long time ago.”

“Right. I believed he was my soulmate, the love of my life, and the wound created when he passed from this world to the next was vast. I didn’t know if I would ever recover, but to be fair, I didn’t really try. No one after him, even those I truly loved, ever healed the wound.”

I gaze into his eyes as he speaks, astounded by his openness.

“I’ve spent the last two hundred plus years ignoring the wound, choosing brief, fleeting moments of pleasure but refusing to open my heart again just to watch another lover wither away and die.”

“I can’t imagine.”

“There is a way, Keagan. A way for someone to stay.”

I crinkle my brow. “What do you mean?”

“It’s called a love bond.”

“A love bond?”

Wilder nods. “It’s a process where a Soul Chaser can choose a human soulmate. When that happens, their souls unite, in the literal sense. Whatever happens to one happens to the other.”

I blink rapidly as I process the explanation. “So, the human wouldn’t die?”

He shakes his head. “Not unless the Soul Chaser died, which is rare and unlikely, but not impossible.”

“That’s cool, I guess. Why are you telling me?” Then it dawns on me, and I gasp. “Samuel. You could’ve done the love bond with him?”

Wilder nods. “Yes. I couldn’t do it, though. I thought it was selfish to ask someone to give up life as they knew it to be with me.”

“But he loved you too, right?”

“I believe so. I never told him about the option, nor anyone after him. It never felt right. As much as I adored Samuel, I couldn’t see an eternal life with him.”