“You remember,” Malik murmured, his unearthly green eyes burning like embers in the dark.
“I remember,” I admitted. “But I don’t understand how. It’s like shards of a mirror—fragments falling into place, but I can’t see the full reflection.”
Olivia let out an exasperated sigh, her hands flying to her hips. “Will somebody please fill me in? What the hell is going on between you two?” She shot a glare at Malik. “And why did you abandon me at the party? You said you’d stay and keep me safe.”
Malik’s expression was downright infuriating. “I knew you were safe.” He leaned back against the edge of the bed, casual, unaffected. “I could hear you fucking in Costa’s office.”
Olivia’s mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”
Malik shrugged, his lips twitching. “Well… you and Roman were fucking.” He gestured between us as if that explained everything. “I was no longer needed.”
Olivia’s jaw clenched. “So, you just left me?”
“I figured you were otherwise occupied,” he explained.
“Did you see us?” Olivia’s voice sharpened, her hands tightening into fists at her sides.
Malik chuckled, his gaze dark with amusement. “No, but the noise penetrated the hallway while I searched for you.”
Spikes of jealousy stabbed through my chest, my fists curling at my sides.
“I know you tried to seduce my wife while we were apart,” I growled.
Malik’s expression didn’t shift. He lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “It seemed natural to do—given our pasts.”
My frown deepened as the memories swirled, pieces clicking together in ways I hadn’t expected.
“If it weren’t for the darkness in my veins,” I murmured, realization sinking into my bones, “Olivia would have given up on me. She would have gone to you, Malik.”
Olivia’s brows snapped together. “Oh, so now you two are deciding my fate? While I’m right here?” She snapped her fingers between us. “Hello—Olivia is standing here! And neither of you is making sense.”
My eyes turned to her—my wife, my salvation, my torment.
She stood disheveled and untamed, her gown wrinkled and smeared with dried droplets of blood, a sweeping pattern across the fabric like some morbid piece of art. Her vibrant red hair hung in tangled waves around her face, dark circles shadowing her eyes from exhaustion.
And yet?—
She was still the most breathtaking creature I had ever seen.
And as the memories filled my mind, shifting, stitching themselves together into something half-forgotten, half-real, I saw something else?—
She reminded me of someone.
Someone from my past.
Someone from another time, another life.
My pulse pounded.
I reached for her, my knuckles brushing down her cheek, my voice low, possessive, edged with something deeper than love.
“I don’t want what we had in the past,” I murmured, my thumb tracing the curve of her jaw, my voice low, raw, unshakable. “I won’t share you—you know that.”
Olivia’s brows knitted together, her eyes searching mine. “Roman…” Her voice held both concern and confusion. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t understand. What past are you talking about?”
I held her gaze, my pulse thudding against my ribs.
“You know the dreams?” I said my voice barely above a whisper. “The fires? The loss of my whole family?”
