I’d walked through fire and hell and managed to build a life again.
I would not let this break me.
When I nodded to Garrett, he held the door open for me and led me back out into the living room.
The Shifter Lord was awake and from the way he was staring at me, way more lucid than he had been for a while.
“Evie,” Caelan breathed.
He reached for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to go to him. Instead, I sat on the edge of the coffee table. Garrett stood by my left, Simone on my right.
Caelan’s stormy eyes looked first to his Enforcer and then to his Omega. He nodded once. “I deserve this, I suppose.”
His eyes were clear, bereft of hatred or anger. Caelan mostly just looked…sad.
Defeated.
I glanced at Dad who was watching me with an unreadable look. “How long?”
“Hard to say exactly, but if I had to guess, I believe it was around four to five months. Maybe a little longer.”
My brain worked furiously. Knowing was a relief. He had cared about me, at least. The timeline was after we had met, after he began his dogged pursuit.
“Do we know why?”
“You can ask me,” Caelan croaked.
I couldn’t even look at him without wanting to curl into the fetal position and die. Shifting my attention, I stared at him.
“I’m me again,” he said softly.
Was he? Had I ever really known him? Would I like this Caelan? The doubt had settled inside me like an infection I couldn’t shake. “Do you know how long?”
He shook his head. “The magic was insidious. I had no idea anything was off until the last few weeks. I started feeling differently maybe two months ago. My sense of time has been messed up for a while. Decisions weren’t as easy to make, almost like someone was pushing back against my own thoughts. I started losing patches of time. My anger was far worse than usual…” His voice trailed off. “Evie, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am?—”
I interrupted, knowing I wasn’t strong enough to hear his apologies right now. “What happened to you was not your fault.” I looked at Dad. “Can you show him my memories?”
Dad’s lips tightened, even as his eyes filled with sympathy. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “Does he remember everything?”
“He only remembers it as he saw it.”
Grief filled me. “Show him. Go back four months and take whatever memories he’s in. Show him the truth.” I paused. “My truth, at least. I—I’m sorry if you see anything weird.”
Dad snorted. “I’m immortal. Weird is irrelevant for all the things I’ve been exposed to.” He held out his hand. I linked my fingers with his and opened my mind.
Dad touched Caelan’s forehead.
Power burned through my soul as he rifled through the memories I had with Caelan and shared them with the Shifter Lord.
But he did something unexpected, he shared Caelan’s memories with me as well.
And by the time he finished, I realized most of the last three months of my life had been a lie.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
