“Eason?” It can’t be him, and yet there he is, standing so close, I can see the darker flecks in his weary gray eyes. I throw my arms around him even as a sob spills from my chest. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
“We must hurry, Allette. There isn’t much time. I’ll explain everything once we’re through the portal.”
The portal? I thought Senan and I were going to Stratiss. Are we meeting him there instead?
Eason pulls me into the inn and asks for a room booked under his own name. The innkeeper hands over a key, and Eason tows me up the stairs to a room at the end of the hallway. Inside is a bed, a small table, and a large trunk. When Eason kneels down to lift the lid, more gold than I’ve ever seen glitters from within.
With a mirthless chuckle, he slams the lid closed once more and catches the handles on both sides. His mammoth biceps bulge when he hefts the thing into his arms. “Let’s go.”
We can’t go yet. Not without the prince. “Where is Senan?”
Eason’s eyes narrow. “Prince Senan married Princess Leeri a few hours ago.”
“No…” That isn’t true. He is lying again. He must be.
“You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.” Eason shakes his head, blowing out a ragged breath. “Of all the men in this fucking realm, why did you have to lovehim? Is it because he is a prince?”
“Of course not.” If anything, Senan’s social status has been a hindrance to our relationship. If he’d been the son of a lord, we would’ve been free to be together from the very beginning.
He drops the chest onto the ground with a resoundingbang. The floorboards and bed rattle with the sheer force. “Then why, Allette? I have seen him destroy lives, destroy himself, drink and dust and fuck for years. He forgot all about you, and yet here you are, about to put yourself in jeopardy once again for a man who cares only for himself.”
Hold on…
How could he have been watching Senan when he was stuck in the human realm with me? “What do you mean you’ve been watching him for years?” That is impossible…isn’t it?
He grabs for my hand, but I skirt back until my spine slams into the wall.
“We need to leave before they send someone after us,” he says. “Give me your hand.”
“First, tell me what the hell is going on.”
He breathes a low curse that sends chills racing down my spine. “The portal doesn’t only open on Samhain.”
Stars…
Is he saying that he hasn’t been stuck in the human realm after all? Did he not drain his magic by saving me? Every day he had gone to work, every time he had left me, had he actually been returning to Kumulus?
“Eason?” My voice shakes. “Look at me.”
His gaze drops to that damn chest as he curses and scrapes a hand across his bearded jaw.
“I said, look at me!”
When he does, I see a truth that shakes me to my core. “All this time, you let me waste away in another realm, knowing you could put an end to my suffering. But you never did.” He has been lying to me from the moment he saved me.
“Because he was never meant for you!” he roars.
“That wasn’t your decision to make! You lied to me.”
“I saved you.”
“How? By letting them cut off my wings? By holding me hostage?”
“Are you really that fucking naïve?” He stalks forward, seeming to grow even larger as he towers over me. “You were the one meant to die that night. We had orders to killyou. And I spent the entire night wrestling with myself, fighting an internal battle between my duty to my king and my feelings for an innocent woman I only just met. I should’ve killed you, ended it all then and there. Instead, I chose to save you.”
I was meant to die that night, not Wynn. Eason had been sent by the king, not just to bring back Senan but to eliminate any loose ends. Eason was the one who threw my wings and my friend’s body into that fire… “How could you do this to me? To him?”
“You ask me that as if you don’t already know the answer.” His hand shoots out, wrapping around my wrist so tightly, tears prick the backs of my eyes. “I have loved you from the moment I first saw you. So, I saved you. Healed you, kept you warm and fed, worked my fucking stones off, and for what? For you to leave me for a fucking duster? Was my love not good enough for you? I have given youeverything.” His grip tightens. “A good life. Asafelife. I pulled you from the ashes, and yetthisis how you repay me? By running straight tohim?”