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“No, you aren’t!” I countered.

How had this been a man I was willing to follow blindly?

“All you care about is manipulating everyone to make me take you back.”

“I told you I would use every tool at my disposal,” he retorted, a muscle throbbing in his jaw. “I will stop at nothing to get you back.”

“All right,” I demanded, holding my hand out impatiently. “The proof, if you please.”

“Open the gate and promise to come home with me.”

I hated the shiver that went through my body at the low, gravelly tone in his voice.

“No. The proof first and then we’ll see if I open this gate.”

“That wasn’t the deal,” he frowned.

“I know, but it’s my deal. And Hugo will walk away from this. Take it or leave it.”

Étienne scanned my set face.

“Who are you, Léonie? I crave so badly to know who you are. The woman I knew would never have spoken to me like this. I want every bit of your fire. Let me in and fuck me up if you need to. I don’t care as long as you let me in.”

“If I take this deal, it’s about Ciel only. Not the two of us. The two of us are through.”

“Léonie, we will never be through. I made a vow in front of the ancestors. You belong to me in every lifetime.”

“I never belonged to you.”

“You’re lying to yourself,” he growled.

The memories intruded on me, the hard but careful feel of his fingers on our wedding night, the way even when he came in late, he would do a little work on the nursery, the way he would shower and crawl into bed beside me, smelling like mountain soap.

And sometimes he’d sing me a little song. Mostly when he thought I was asleep already. Just snatches of old French folk songs, nursery rhymes, lines that sounded almost like poetry.

I ripped the proof from his fingers, my own burning, and I scanned the documents.

They confirmed exactly what I had suspected. Étienne was a manipulative bastard but he wasn’t lying about this.

“This will give you everything you need to find her,” I said to Hugo, handing him the information.

“No. No. It’s not worth it, Léonie. I don’t trust him.”

But I only looked at Hugo, at his kind, intelligent face, the dark lock of hair over his eyes, the way he no longer looked exhausted and drawn. At the ache and longing in his eyes. He at least should get a happy ending.

“You have to try.”

I glanced over at Étienne.

“If you’re lying about any of this, or if this is a trap, I’m going to make damn sure you never find me again.”

“I am not a liar,” my husband said through gritted teeth, his heart pounding through his torn T-shirt. “Never again. You don’t understand how much I regret every fucking thing I did that led me to this. How fucking feral I am to make sure this never happens again. How I can’t sleep at night. All I do is pace the living room floor and think about how to get you back.”

“I sleep just fine,” I said through narrowed eyes, because I wanted it to hurt and I could see that it hurt. “I don’t need you. Remember that. I’m doing this for Hugo. Because I owe him so much and I want him to be happy.”

I reached up to open the gate, and my husband burst through it.

I could feel each step through my chest, reverberating through my toes.