“Zahra,” I say.
Recognition robs the fight from her.
Even her pixie stops fruitlessly hammering her hands against my shoulder to chirp, “You know Zahra?”
“You’d have saved yourself weeks of trouble had you told her where you were and let her get you herself.” I comb my fingers through Danielle’s hair, feel the soft waves against my skin. It’s long. I wonder, desperately, what exact shade it might be.
But.
Truly.
Something as insipid as that doesn’t matter.
All that matters is that Danielle ismine.
After so long. Aftercenturies. Here I stand with the woman who belongs tome.
“Don’t touch me so familiarly,” she mutters.
“You didn’t say that to him.” I direct my chin toward the man scrambling off the sticky floors, likely looking everywhere for the woman he must assume by now pushed him. I take note of the way his spirit feels and the strings that connect him to this world…just in case I feel the urge to hunt him down later.
Danielle stiffens. “I was using him to get a free meal.”
My very soul constricts as my stomach knots. “Please do not tell me you’ve been doing this since you left home. Locating the trail of anyone who smells like you will be almost as frustrating as disposing of their corpses.”
A splash of Danielle’s fear hits my tongue as she steels herself…against me.
I, quite completely, despise that.
She grits, “You can’t know Zahra. She wouldn’t be friends with someone like you. You’re one of the faeries who can get in my head.”
My brows rise, because—to my knowledge—spare few are capable of such a thing, and personally I only know of one such creature.
“Don’t think for a moment you can toy with me.”
Toywith her? Don’t be ridiculous. I intend to treat my soul’s mate with nothing but kindness, consideration, and sincerity. Should we take to playing games, they will be far more meaningful than meretoying. “I wouldn’t dream of it, love.”
“Unhand me. Now.”
“No, I don’t think I will.”
She, quite nearly, knees me square in the groin.
After I catch her leg, her balance tips, and she whispers a fragileoh dear.
“Hush.” I sweep her up into my arms before she can fall, revel in the way my heart finds solace in this weight of her, and turn us toward the exit.
Behind me, wings flitting in a constant buzz, Danielle’s pixie wraps her fists around the knot of my blindfold. “Stop it! Stop! Where are you taking her?”
“Nowhere you can’t join us, hatchling.” I let my lips graze Danielle’s forehead as she holds onto my robes for dear life. “I would take care not to tamper with my blindfold, though. My eyes turn creatures to stone, so there is a very good reason why I keep them covered.”
Her tiny hands release the fabric. “Where are you taking my Dani?”
“Home.”
“Where ishome?” Danielle asks, songbird voice wobbling.
Anywherewith you, love.Mylove. Mine.Finally.
