Guilt pools in my chest. I should’ve tried harder to make him talk about it—shouldn’t have let him push me away.
“You don’t have to hide from me,” I whisper. “I’m right here—always.”
He swallows and looks away. “I didn’t want you to see me differently,” he admits.
Surprise floods my veins. Seehimdifferently? All this time, I was afraid he would seemedifferently now that my magic is failing me. I’m not the same as I was before, and neither is he. Maybe that isn’t a bad thing.
“Graylen,” I beg, my voice so desperate that it causes him to look at me. His emerald eyes shine, a warring storm brewing behind them. “No matter who you are, Ichooseyou.”
“You’ve been pulling away,” he whispers. “I pushed, but you drifted.”
This time, it’s my turn to hesitate.
The omission cuts deep into my soul.
I let him push me away because I was afraid.
My hands cup his jaw, bracketing his face. I search his eyes, finding a vulnerability there I haven’t seen before.
If he can be honest, then so can I.
“I’m losing my magic,” I admit. “You fell in love with a girl who hadfourdifferent types of magic all at her fingertips. Now… What if I lose it all? Who will I be then?”
He freezes, realization spreading across his face. “You will be Lunaria Manor,” he says slowly. “That doesn’t change who you are. And you’re wrong about something.”
My brows draw together.
“I fell in love with a human girl I didn’t know belonged in my world.” Graylen’s lips tilt into a soft smile. “I fell for a girl that sassed me and gave me hell. For a girl that trained in the gardens and punched harder than she smiled. I didn’t fall for you when we were in Penyth, Lu. I fell for you long before that.”
Warmth spreads through my chest, quieting the hammering in my ears. “I’m sorry I doubted you,” I say quietly, my voice thick. “I wish I could replace every one of those memories with something good.”
Something sparks in his gaze; I can practically see an idea churning in his mind.
Slowly, he reaches out, his hand brushing my hair off of my shoulder. He takes two fingers and presses them at the base of my throat.
“This is where she tried to make me believe I had run a sword through you,” he says softly. “It was my hand that held the blade.”
My lips part, and my pulse begins to thrash beneath the weight of his fingers.
“That’s the one I see the most often, the one that haunts me in my sleep.” His eyes fall to where his hand connects to my neck. “Every time I look here, I canhearthe way you cried out in agony—how you begged for me to save you.”
His hand falls away, dangling in his lap. Then he leans forward, and my breath catches. He gently presses a kiss to the base of my neck, the same spot his fingers just warmed.
“Graylen,” I gasp as his tongue flicks out onto my flesh. “What are you?—”
I suck in a sharp breath when his lick turns into a quick nip with his teeth.
“You had the right idea when you said you wanted to replace my old memories with new ones,” he murmurs against my skin. His hands slide around my waist. “That’s what I intend to do tonight.”
He shifts off of the bed and tugs me forward until I’m seated on the edge and he’s standing between my legs. Heat pours into my chest as he reaches out and grips my chin, tilting my face up toward him.
A stormy green sea stares back at me so intensely that I can’t look away.
“I once told you that a mark would only be on you if I put it there, and that it would be from pleasure, not pain.” Graylen’s voice pitches, near-desperate.Needy. “Let me give you pleasure in all the places Vidaris made me see pain.”
A soft whimper escapes my lips, and I reach for his waistband. I would gladly give him anything he asked of me right now. This man, who somehow went from someone I loathed being around to a person for whom I would doanythingjust to make them happy.
But the moment my fingers curl around the fabric, he stops me. My eyes fly up to his and my brows pull together.
