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“Only to protect you…” His voice was laced with sorrow.

“My mother has been threatening to send you to the dungeons since she found out about us. I offered her information in exchange for your safety. She does nothing out of the kindness of her heart. I did what I had to do. I couldn’t see you shackled and broken.

I couldn’t let her crush your spirit.” Silver tears lined his lashes as he looked at me.

“Did you tell her about my blood? How it affects your power?”

He shook his head. “No, I promise.”

I nodded limply. He’d violated my trust. Even if it had been for my benefit; he’d lied.

At the very least, he shouldn’t have let me walk into the meeting unaware.

I felt like a fool. He knew how evil they were, how eager they were to hurt people like me.

And now I was their political enemy as well.

Today had been a stark reminder that I was falling in love with my enemy’s son. There would be no easy path forward.

“You betrayed me, regardless of your reasons. Will you continue to choose your mother over me?”

His tone grew frantic as he replied, “Of course not. I choose you, always . But she’s the only protection we have from the Elders right now.

I’m doing what I can to appease her, so that I can keep you safe.

I won’t let them have you. I’ll fight her on this.

I’ll fight the whole fucking world if I have to.

” He tried to smooth my hair and I shied from his touch.

His face fell and he stared out the window.

“I’ve told you, since the beginning… you’re too good for me,” he whispered.

“Maybe I’m more like my mother than I’d like to admit.

I lied—you’re right. But my choices we re limited.

She’s not one to respond to declarations of love.

I had to give her something she wanted, and then I was afraid to tell you—of losing you.

“Before you arrived… I couldn’t face myself, so I found ways to escape: Alcohol, blood, sex…

whatever numbed me into oblivion. I have an endless rage inside of me.

My childhood, the things I’ve been forced to do, memories that haunt me…

I’ve accumulated over one-hundred years of night terrors.

When I let that anger consume me, it’s as if I’m standing on the edge of a cliff.

And if I let myself fall, then I’ll become her .

I’ll become my mother, instead of my father.

“When you came along, I was ready to let darkness take me. I’d given up on myself.

And then I was blinded by your light. You’re sunshine , Marigold.

It’s as if you fell from the sky to remind me there is still gentleness in the world.

” Galen met my gaze. His thumb brushed along the crests of my wet cheeks as he whispered, “I love you. I want to be better for you. You’re my guiding light, my beacon. Without you, I’m hopeless.”

Tears blurred my vision. It physically hurt to know just how much pain he’d been in. How tortured his soul was.

But how he viewed me… it didn’t feel sustainable, it made my stomach ache. He had me on a pedestal, but I wasn’t a savior. Not his, not his world’s. I was just a girl who was very, very lost. He’d reduced my heart to ash with his actions. And yet, it was still beating… for him.

I should’ve shoved him out of the moving vehicle for what he did, but as I gazed at his distraught face, I yearned to take his pain away. I yearned for him to devour me. I’d never been more convinced that my animal form was something that a lion would eat .

Could two broken people form one whole one, or were we just fooling ourselves? Could trust grow back over time? Or was it like a faerie heart—forever broken once shattered?

“It’ll take time to forgive you,” I said softly.

“Take all the time you need, love.” Galen gathered me into his arms. I let him shower me with kisses. They felt like drops of summer rain against my frigid skin.

I didn’t want to think about the Elders—what they’d do to me if given the chance. I didn’t want to think about the Oracle and her price . I didn’t want to think about the people who would die if I failed.

After a long silence I said, “You won’t become your mother. You get to choose who you are, Galen.” I let those words sink in before I continued, “ I won’t be a bird that you bat about with your paws. No more lies. We’re partners. Equals . If you betray me again, you will lose me.”

His uhra appeared as he smiled down at me. A blend of blue and red, both fighting for dominance. I knew where a red uhra would lead. I shuttered as I remembered the rotting souls of the Elders. I couldn’t let that be his fate. He needed me. And I needed him too.

“I’ll never do anything to jeopardize this again. You hold my imperfect heart in your hands, do with it what you will.” He leaned his forehead against mine.

Today had been too much. Conflicting emotions battered me from all directions. Fear, guilt, anger, shame . So much shame. I’d cowered before the enemy today. I needed to find myself. But first I needed to lose myself… in him.

“Bite me,” I whispered. Take me to oblivion .

Galen’s face lit up in delighted astonishment. “Dear gods, I found myself a unicorn. There’s no one else like you.”

He kissed his way down my throat, whispering sweet nothings along the way. And then his canines were sinking into the delicate curve of my neck. We moaned in unison as he took me to a faraway land, where nothing hurt and no one could come between us.