Page 68

Graves’s limo was waiting at the exit to Lorcan’s building. Graves leaned back against the door, utterly unconcerned. Druid patrols stared down at him with open enmity, guns trained in his direction. And on his part, not a single fuck was given.

“Wren,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief at her presence. “Let’s get you home.”

He yanked the door open, letting her slip inside. He smirked up at the patrols before sliding in after her. He tapped the roof twice, and George pulled away.

Graves was utter stillness next to her. She could feel the waves of death emanating from him. The nightmare that she’d first known. As if he couldn’t control the power that whirled like a tornado, threatening to take down the entire Druid compound.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly.

“Am I okay? You were the one who was injured.”

“Do I look injured?”

“Yes,” he said flatly.

“Did Lorcan tell you what happened?”

“Gen did,” Graves said. “As best she could. She did not see the danger that I did.”

“What danger was that?”

His gaze finally shifted to hers. “Your magic was drained. Your absorption was off. Anything could be done to you.”

“Do I seem different?” she asked, not discarding his fear. He had a reason for this, clearly. His feelings were valid.

“You smell like him,” Graves growled.

Kierse bit her lip. “That…would make sense.”

“Explain.”

“I woke up in his shirt,” she told him. “In his room. In his bed.”

Graves clenched his jaw. “We need to turn around. I’m going to kill him.”

Kierse laughed. “We’ll shower when we get home. I can start smelling like that honeysuckle and jasmine stuff you got me again. Will that make it better?”

“He’s goading me,” Graves said.

“Yes. But he was also trying to take care of me and was worried about moving me. I am still not that steady on my feet.”

“He has ulterior motives.”

She scooted across the seat and leaned her head against his shoulder. “So do you.”

Graves slipped his arm across her back and pulled her in tighter. “Yes, but you are my wren.”

“Mmm,” she agreed without argument, letting her eyes flutter closed.

It wasn’t that much later when Graves was carrying her out of the limo and up in the elevator.

She snuggled tighter into him as he hefted her up the stairs to his bedroom.

She thought he might force her to shower to get the smell of Lorcan off of her, but he just yanked the sheets back and tucked her into the comforter.

She yawned dramatically. “Bed?”

He kicked his shoes off in response and began to undress her slow and methodically. Once she was down to her underwear, he tucked her back into the bed, removed his clothes, and crawled in after her. Her back was to his chest, and everything felt exactly as it should.

She hated how out of control she felt in Lorcan’s presence. And how much easier it was when there was a major body of water between them.

Graves pressed a kiss into her shoulder. “I hate that, too.”

She shut her mind down, finding that space where she could open and close her vault with ease. Not that she really thought she could keep Graves out, but…she hadn’t meant for him to hear that.

“I already know how you feel about him,” Graves told her. “I’ve seen it before.”

“Stop reading me,” she said, shifting away from him.

His eyes clouded. “Of course.”

“No, wait…” She reached for him. “I didn’t mean…”

“I understand,” he said, keeping the distance. “It’s less fun when you can’t choose it.”

That was true, but that wasn’t the problem. It was the hurt on his face.

“I don’t feel for Lorcan what I feel for you.”

“I know,” Graves said evenly. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“Yes. It’s…”

“Intense,” Graves finished for her. His gaze dark as he stared down at his bare hand.

“Sometimes,” she admitted, willing him to meet her eyes again.

“Compulsive,” he added. “Complicated. Painful. Wanton. Frustrating.”

She hadn’t even been thinking about how the bond made her feel. Was she that transparent?

“Did you read all that off of me just now?”

“No,” Graves said slowly, looking up at her finally. “I read it off of Emilie.”

Kierse swallowed hard as realization dawned. “Emilie had a soulmate?”

“A Druid named Tadhg, who was rising in the ranks. He was a decade older than us at the time. It doesn’t feel like much now, but it did then.”

“You’re a few centuries older than me,” Kierse said with a laugh.

“Precisely.” He lifted a shoulder. “At the time, a decade felt like an eternity. Especially when you’re in love with someone else.”

Kierse had a dawning realization. “You were in love, but she had a soulmate that was someone else.”

“Yes.”

“Much like…”

“You and Lorcan,” he confirmed.

“Fuck,” she said. “You really reach for the worst hand in the deck every time, don’t you?”

His lips quirked at the flippancy. “They’re always drawn for me.”

“I know that feeling.”

“Emilie was my first love. I thought she was the entire world. I wanted to believe that the soulmate was wrong, but it was an honor back then. We decided together to petition for a marriage.”

Kierse could hear the heartbreak in his voice. The girl he’d loved and no one would take them seriously.

“We thought it would change their minds. It did not.”

“I’m sorry,” she told him truthfully.

His expression was flat as he added, “No one would have done it anyway. I wasn’t really one of them.”

Kierse frowned. She didn’t feel the writhing pit of jealousy she thought she would at hearing Graves discuss his first love.

She’d rescued Torra months earlier and had once wanted that to be her entire world.

This was centuries before she had even been born.

She couldn’t be upset about a life that he’d lived before her.

All she felt instead was understanding and sympathy. That so many people had hurt Graves, rejected him, and created the monster they thought they were protecting themselves from.

“It was a long time ago. What should have been clear to me but wasn’t until it was too late was that Emilie could never be mine.” His eyes were hard and flat at the words. “Now I’m wondering if I have once again convinced myself of the impossible.”

Kierse’s heart was stuttering at those words. “Which is what?”

“That you could be mine.”

Their eyes met across the small distance. She watched him bare his soul to her. With open fear in every interaction, and still he was trying.

Kierse reached out then and took his hand in hers. His eyes widened at her as she opened herself to him. Not at the confused feelings for Lorcan that were distorted by whatever connection was between them, but deeper, to the core of what she felt for him . For Graves .

“There is no organization forcing anyone to be together. A few hundred years have passed since that time. There is no Fae Council. The Druids don’t control me. Nothing and no one controls you. The only people who get to choose anything are the two people in this room. All right?”

“I much prefer that,” he said, sliding his hand up her arm and around to her back, pulling her into him.

“Good.”

His lips brushed hers as he said, “Just know, you are my choice. Every time.”