“How so?” Daphne wonders.
“He lost you.”
She jerks back. “But he has others.”
Malachi shakes his head. “He lost you because you saved him. His guilt is unbearable, and with his fractured mind, he gets even more confused.”
Nash leans forward. “We have to repeat the events to him almost every diurnal. It’s soul-destroying watching him crumple.”
“And reliving it again and again isn’t healthy,” Charming adds.
“Ain’t that the truth,” I grumble.
Daphne’s lips press together in a tight line. “Can someone get a mirror now? I feel like he should be here as we discuss what happened.”
I meet Nash’s steady gaze, and he sighs before getting to his feet and retrieving a long mirror from his chambers. He leans it against the wall, and we stare at the reflective surface.
“Eron?” Daphne says, her voice wobbling with emotion. “Are you there?”
Everyone holds their breath, and then the surface shimmers and Eron’s familiar face appears. “Fairest Doris, you are looking most alive tonight.” He frowns as if he’s unsure of his words.
Daphne launches from the sofa and rushes to the mirror before dropping to her knees and hugging him.
“Once more you are gifting me with a view of your most voluptuous bosom. Stop fussing, Eric. I can comment on the maiden’s figure without doodling.”
Daphne laughs, but it’s a wet sound. “He means drooling,” she chokes out.
“That’s what I said. Now release me so I can look at you. It feels like an eternity since I saw you last.”
She leans back and hangs her head. “It has been an eternity.”
“A few weeks,” Charming mutters.
“Six weeks,” I correct, checking the clock above the hearth. “Three diurnals, four turns, and thirty-six tempos.”
Daphne blinks her wet eyes at me over her shoulder, her mouth hanging open. I don’t care that I’ve revealed how much her absence has affected me.
Eron’s face squashes against the surface of the mirror as he attempts to get closer to Daphne. She turns back to him andtouches her fingers to the surface. “You aren’t quite whole,” he observes.
“I’m here,” she answers.
“But not altogether there.”
“That would be because I am missing my dragon.”
He shakes his head, his squashed nose squeaking against the surface. “Your soul. It’s fractured, but not lost.” He moves back and looks around the room with a firm nod. “But it is safe.”
“We have part of her soul?” Malachi questions.
“It’s a consequence of the wish,” Genie points out. “To tether a soul already in the arms of the stars is no mean feat, and it cannot be done with a flick of the wrist and a few whispered words.”
A terrifying and yet logical summary of how Daphne is now linked to us through more than a budding heat. How we are tied together in more than heart and words. There’s an undeniable future, and she is at the center, alongside her sister.
“We need to speak about our bloodline,” Gwyneth says, as if she heard my thoughts.
“Can’t it wait?” Malachi groans.
I understand his urgency in reconnecting with Daphne, alone, with nothing between us. But the more we deal with now, the longer uninterrupted time we will have with her.
