Chapter 15
TARIAN
T he flash of headlights in the rearview reminded him—they were on the run.
He didn’t know from whom yet, but if they’d faked her death in his Realm nearly a millennium ago, they wouldn’t stop now.
He should have interrogated those men at the hotel—starting with the one she’d been with, the man who had betrayed her.
But he’d been too obsessed with making her see him, and now, because of that failure, they were running blind, and he didn’t know how far he’d have to go to keep her safe.
All he knew was that somehow, he would manage it.
Even if she didn’t know who she was.
Even if she didn’t love him.
Even if this felt like losing her, all over again.
Her scent—orange blossoms, faint but familiar—lingered in the car, a cruel echo of everything he’d held onto for eight hundred years.
I did this to her.
The thought was like the projectile still lodged in his chest, sharp-edged and unyielding. Desperate to keep her, terrified of losing her to time, he’d broken every rule—defied every law of magic—to make her immortal. He hadn’t considered what it might cost her—or him.
And now she was scared of him.
That was worse than her rejection.
That she could think, even for a moment, that he meant her harm—it felt like the missing piece of his soul, that he’d given to her, had left a hole that was fracturing, carving him deeper and deeper inside.
And—somehow he was still injured.
He’d been brushing it off because it didn’t make any sense to him, his time recuperating at his brother’s home should have made him whole.
But whatever was draconic inside him hadn’t managed to seal the wound, and now he was bleeding badly enough for her to notice. He didn’t have time for the luxury of weakness right now.
He stole a glance in her direction. Her arms were crossed tight over her chest, her gaze fixed stubbornly out the window.
The anger radiating off her was almost palpable, but there was nothing he could say.
I stole your mortality. Once upon a time, I anchored you to me, and now it is against your will.
But I would do it all again just to keep you near.
The road ahead stretched into darkness, twisting with uncertainty—much like his path with her.