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Free to leave Ella behind. And start again, somewhere new.

There’s a small amount of money. Not enough for anything much beyond a bus ticket. But enough to escape.

My key sticks in the lock. Frowning, I twist it again.

“Anastasia Cooper?” I turn as the shadows detach from the wall. “Sister to Ella Cooper?”

“She’s not my sister.” The words are instinctive, and the officers look at each other grimly.

“Is… is she alright?” Sudden worry hits me. “Is she hurt?”

“Can you come with us, please?”

She is not hurt.

Quite the opposite. Ella is thriving, tucked away under the protection of the Crown Prince.

What a story she has woven.

And they don’t listen to me, when I tell them they have it wrong.

They don’t listen to me at all.

41 – Rafe

Ihave never been a religious man.

But as I kneel by her side, Silas pumping the blood around her body and Kit breathing air into her lungs, I pray.

To every fucking deity out there.

You can have me.

Take me instead.

Just don’t take her.

I make a dozen bargains, a dozen exchanges in my head. And when Kit shouts, his voice jubilant, it takes me a moment. I almost expect my own heart to stop beating as I stare at her chest. At the faint rise and fall.

It wouldn’t matter. My heart belongs to her anyway.

But as the minutes creep on and that rise and fall continues, I realize that I’m not going to die today.

Silas forces water into me, he and Kit working to strip the bed beneath her and put clean sheets on. Then Kit lifts her up, as Silas slowly peels the top from over her head to put a clean shirt on her.

“What the fuck is that?” He stops, staring down as Kit and I crane to look.

It takes me a moment to remember. To remember Ella Cooper, peering into her wardrobe.

You don’t have any belts here.

“Belt marks.” It sounds wrong on my tongue, so I say it again when they both look at me. Kit closes his eyes.

Silas doesn’t speak at all. His jaw tightens as he gently tugs the shirt over her. Something drops down, and I reach out. “What’s this?”

And his eyes flare wide with shock. “That’s – give it here.”

He takes it, turning it over in his hands. “This is Mother’s wedding ring.”