What was the point of giving Stellon a message that would only cause him more pain? As Pharis had said, I needed to try my best to forget him… and allow him to forget me.
We’d been doomed from the beginning, and now it was truly over. One day, all of this would feel like a dream.
Pharis gave a terse nod and began to turn away, but I stopped him, reaching out to touch the sleeve of his jacket.
“What is it?” He stared down at me, waiting.
“I… I just want to say thank you—for all you did to get me here. I know it was more than an inconvenience, and you don’t exactly love spending time with humans.”
He looked at me for a long moment then said, “Some of them aren’t so bad.”
And then I changed my mind and asked Pharis to deliver a message to his brother after all.
“Tell Stellon you delivered on your promise in full.”
My eyes closed, and I allowed myself one more moment of sweet remembrance.
“And tell him that I said to thank him for taking such good care of me…” I had to stop and swallow. “... and for treating me with more kindness than anyone ever has.”
Pharis’ expression hardened again, the liquid jewel-tone eyes turning to frozen seawater. His tone was foreboding.
“If you truly love my brother, youwilllet him go. You could never be anything more to him than a noose around his neck that our father will use to control him for the rest of eternity.”
He added one final twist to the dagger already puncturing my heart. “Don’t worry, he’ll get over you. You’re not even his type, really.”
Then his tone softened, and he said, “Goodbye, little Wyn.”
Pharis turned and disappeared into the darkness.
Chapter8
So Soon
Raewyn
Shivering in the sudden absence of Pharis’ luxuriant body heat, I opened the cottage door and went inside.
As it was the middle of the night, everyone was, of course, asleep. I tried my best to move through the one-room space and climb the ladder to the sleeping loft in silence, but my father must have heard me.
He sat up on his cot. “Who’s there?”
“It’s me, Papa,” I said softly so as not to disturb the girls. “I’m home.”
And then he was on his feet, moving toward me. Though he couldn’t see me, he had every inch of the cottage memorized, and he knew where the ladder was.
I was gratified to see he still moved well. When we embraced, he felt strong. Apparently Sorcha had kept her word about his healing being the real thing.
And she hadn’t gotten the opportunity to reverse it—yet.
“How have you been?” I whispered. “How are the girls?”
“We’re all well. How areyou, daughter?” Papa asked, sounding a bit choked. “When you didn’t return the morning after the ball, I feared—”
His voice broke into a sob. “It was like losing your mother all over again.”
Between sobs, he said, “The girls have missed you desperately. I’ve missed you. I wanted to go after you, to try to find you, but everyone advised me against it—no one would lend me a horse or an escort. No one would go in my stead. Everyone was too afraid.”
I nodded rapidly, matching tears streaming down my own face.
