Brynleigh missed the box where she used to keep her feelings. Life had been much easier when she didn’t have to deal with them.
“I’ll have to shadow us both,” she warned.
The Rosewood was too far to travel through regular, mortal options.
“I know.”
She pressed her forehead against the door, feeling each grain of wood as her hand landed on the knob.
Memories of a different wall in a library during a time when they weren’t yet broken flashed through her mind.
“Ryker?” She breathed his name, the word barely a whisper as it left her lips.
A human wouldn’t have been able to hear her—but he wasn’t a human.
“Yes?” He sounded close. Was he also pressed against the door?
She squeezed her eyes shut, gathering her courage. “I… I need to tell you something. In case tonight doesn’t go as planned.”
There was always a chance that things would go wrong on a job. It was a liability for what she did. Someone could fight back, or the police could show up, or she could be injured.
Risks were a part of her life. They had never really bothered her before the Choosing. Back then, she hadn’t had anyone. No one would have cared if she’d died.
But now?
Even with everything dividing them, Brynleigh’s heart still beat for her fae captain. The past six days of silence had confirmed that for her.
She still loved him—she would always love him.
But she didn’t think love would be enough to fix them.
He growled, “Brynleigh, nothing is going to?—”
“You don’t know that,” she breathed. “Please, let me say this.”
A resigned sigh came from the other side of the barrier, and her heart broke a little more. She’d done this. Ruined them. None of this would’ve happened if she’d figured out a way to tell the truth before the wedding night.
“Go ahead,” he said after a minute. “I’m listening.”
Brynleigh drew in a deep breath. Nerves twisted her stomach. Her mouth dried, but she placed her palm flat on the door and forced her lips to form words.
“It wasn’t all a lie,” she whispered. “I need you to know that. The things I confided in you, the chess games we shared, the kisses, none of them were fake. They meant something to me.”
Tears streaked down her cheeks, and she did nothing to stop them.
The silence was back, and this time, it was louder than ever. There were no cameras, no one watching or listening, and no guards.
It was just… them.
Seconds bled into minutes.
The silence grew until the racing of her anxious heart was the only thing she could hear.
Then, just when she thought he had left, there came a sound like knuckles drumming on the other side of the door.
“I loved you, Brynleigh.” His baritone voice echoed with remnants of deep pain. “I gave you my heart in the Choosing. I bared my soul to you.”
There it was again. Fucking past tense.