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“Fully?” I didn’t blink. Didn’t move.

His chest heaved on a heavy sigh. “Yes.”

“That means…”

He did look at me then, with such hunger and longing it made it difficult to breathe.

“Yes.”

I swayed. Samhain was a little over two weeks away. Wolfe would be able to stand here as a man, as real and as solid as I was. My mind raced with possibilities. Dinner. A walk through town, arms linked. Maybe a beer at the pub. Or…

“I’ve tried to use the night to cross over,” he said, ripping me from my thoughts. “I walk the earth once more and when the sun rises, the veil begins to appear. I’ve tried to find rest but I cannot. I am…barred from entering.” The words were bitter, nearly spat. “I don’t know why.”

“Do you have unfinished business? Anything you wanted to complete when you were alive that you didn’t?”

Anguish cut across his features. It was the most heartbreaking thing I’d ever seen. Just as quickly as it came, it was gone.

“Nothing that I can fix.”

“We have to try!” I pressed. “You deserve your peace, Wolfe. I can’t—I can’t imagine knowing you will fade away into one of those creatures. There’s no way to help them?” I dared to ask. “They’re just…trapped?”

He stopped pacing, spine straightening. “You would help them?”

I threw my hands up. “Of course. They’re still souls aren’t they? For whatever reason, they’re trapped here. It’s not their fault.”

He deflated, shoulders rounding. “I don’t know. Truly, I don’t know. I think some of them are too far gone. I still have my memories, at least.” He tapped his temple.

I shuddered, pressing my fingers to my eyes. What a bleak, horrific way to spend eternity. Crawling through the dark, desperate to be remembered, struggling to pass on. Trapped. Endlessly, infinitely. Imagining Wolfe contained to that, lost to what he was…

“Hey.” He knelt by my feet and gently pried my hands away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“You’re too bright for it,” I rasped. I touched the color of his shirt, the fabric soft between my fingers. “I can’t stomach it.”

Finally, a hint of a smile. “I have something to ward against it now.” He settled his hand over mine, right above the space his heart should have been beating. “When those long nights come, Avery Eden, I will think of you.”

I dropped my forehead to his, unable to speak. I felt his smile, his breath, against my lips.

“And I welcome it, for no darkness would ever be able to snuff out the light of you.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead, and I raged at the world and the universe for keeping us separated in such a way. “How can they take what has already been claimed?”

He rose, eyes dark as the sky outside.

I thought I knew heartbreak before. I thought I knew what it was like to ache, to hurt so deeply that my bones felt the sting of it.

Watching Wolfe fade made me realize my hurt was truly just beginning.

Chapter 20

After a long, sleepless night, Wolfe and I finally finished Moira’s book over breakfast.

There was a new thistle waiting by my plate, purple petals blinking up at me. I ran my finger over it, dreading the day where this would be all I had left of the man sitting across from me.

Elise’s story came to a sweet end—the Irish Lord fought off the man trying to take her back home against her will. He realized the error of his ways and begged on his hands and knees for her forgiveness. After letting him sweat it out for a few days, Elise told him that there was no other place she belonged than beside him.

My heart pinched in my chest, butterflies erupting as they renewed their vows right on the lake out back. I closed the book and let out a dreamy sigh. It’d been a long time since I’d read just for the fun of it. The romance, the declarations, the steamy scenes that had sweat breaking out along the back of my neck.

I tapped the cover. “Do you think…”

“Mmm?” Wolfe leaned across the table, shoulders straining under the wine-red fabric.