Page 128 of The Incendiary

“Love!” I lunged forward and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt for a second time. “I love her! I will always love her! She is the only thing I have ever loved and the only thing I will ever love! Do you hear me, sorcerer?” I tightened my grasp, longing to feel his neck crushing beneath my fingers. “You. Cannot. Stop. Me.”

“I don’t have to stop you,” he answered dryly. “Time will stop you.”

I stumbled backward, needing the full length of the small cabin between us. If I didn’t, I would kill him, and she would be lost and asleep forever.

“I know what’s right for her,” Simeon remarked.

“The fuck you do!” I roared. “You put bars on her window, Whitlock! You trapped and smothered her and made her believe she wasn’t worth breaking out!”

He stilled, a grim pall falling over his features. “There are forces in play you don’t understand.”

“Then tell me!” I threw my arms wide in surrender. “Help me understand! Do to me whatever you did to her so that when she wakes, I am there.”

Simeon shook his head. “She’ll never remember you. Her memories are gone.”

The pain of reality threatened to put me on the floor. “Give them back to her!”

“I can’t. It’s done.”

My hands fell helpless at my sides. Simeon Whitlock was a liar, but something told me he wasn’t lying about this.

At least I had my own memories. Her sweet laughter and the perfect, bright smile she saved only for me. How she wrapped her arms around me and rested her head against my chest, my lips in her hair. How she trusted me with every part of herself. I cherished each moment we’d ever shared, played them repeatedly like a divine, entrancing melody that had no business existing in a world so harsh.

She was precious. She was worth it.

It hurt. Gods, it fucking hurt, but I was willing to be what she needed, even if she never remembered us. Even if what she needed me to be in her new life was something other than hers.

“I’ll be what she needs.”

Simeon scoffed. “You are the last thing she needs, and you’ll be in the ground long before I bring her back.”

No. I simply refused. I had promised her “whatever it takes,” and I meant it.

“I’ll find a way,” I vowed.

“There is no way, Smyth.”

Resolve straightened my spine. There was a way. If the questionable things I’d already done didn’t send me straight to whatever hell the gods had in store for men like me, this would.

I would do it anyway.

Simeon’s door slammed behind me as I left him alone, bleeding, still underestimating the lengths I was willing to go for her.

It was time to find my father.

THIRTY-FIVE

ELIAS WINTERTON

I sent a displeased Sophia Bruta away from my quarters for the last time.

Ever since Fera stumbled upon me during a threesome, I’d become dissatisfied in the bedroom. The women I invited to my bed had always been aware of my boundaries. Simple fucking, with no attachment and no promises, all ending prior to the queen’s arrival.

But Sophia wanted more now that the queen was dead, and I’d had enough of her irritating presence.

It was Fera I couldn’t get out of my head. And that dress.

After she walked off the Reverie dance floor with her head held high, strong hips swaying, I’d retreated to the far wall beyond the sea of bodies and poured myself a few glasses of wine.