“They should never have done what they did to you either.” Her voice was soft and held so much sadness, he wanted fiercely to put his arms around her, but he couldn’t. “I shouldn’t have done what I did to you. I knew it, and I did it anyway. You were dead, and I-I couldn’t—”

Her words cut off abruptly. Hurting for her, he clenched his fists and waited, but she didn’t continue.

Bravery, he thought, was facing the impossible and saying, What’s next? Which was exactly what she had done.

“When I think of how you confronted Azrael, I’m speechless,” he told her. “And when I think of what you managed to win from the god of Death, I’m in awe. Here’s the thing, my love. If I had faced what you had faced—if I had seen you killed, I would have done exactly the same thing as you did. I would have done anything I had to do in order to keep you. Anything. I realized I would do that the first time we made love.”

“But the one thing he offered was the one thing I knew you couldn’t accept,” she whispered. “I took it anyway, because I needed to know you were somewhere in the world, even if you weren’t with me.”

The pain in those simple, whispered words was so clear, his eyes dampened. What a desperate choice she’d faced.

“I’m here to ask for your forgiveness,” he said.

“You? What do I have to forgive you for?”

Leaning forward, he put his head in his hands. “When I awakened, and you told me what you’d done, I reacted badly.”

There was a small silence. “Well, for God’s sake, you had your reasons. You had died.” Her voice broke, but she picked up again quickly. “Died and then woken up again to discover you were still under the geas. I’d say you get a pass for reacting badly to that, Morgan.”

He chuckled as he wiped his eyes. “Okay, but I still hurt you, and I can’t take that back. I wish I could.” Standing, he stepped back from the house to look up at her. She had crossed her arms as she leaned on the windowsill, and she looked so vulnerable and beautiful at once, he wanted to claw his way up the side of the house to her. “I’m sorry it took me a few weeks to work through it. I had a lot of baggage I needed to clear out of the way, and a lot of years of struggling against the geas. Those years taught me I wasn’t supposed to trust anyone who held me in their control, but I trust you anyway.”

Her gaze flared wide, and her expression came to life, but not with the kind of emotion he had hoped so much to see. “You—trust me?” she repeated bitterly. “How could you be so stupid? I don’t trust me!”

Chapter Twenty-Four

It took a second for that to sink in. He demanded, “Why not?”

“When I saw you walking down the street toward me earlier, the first thing I wanted to do was order you to stay!” she shouted. “That’s why I ran! That dumb god never should have offered it to me. You can’t trust me with the geas. But I also don’t ever want to see you look at me the way you did back in the great hall.”

“Please believe me, if I could take that back, I would.” Frustration gnawed at him. She still kept her distance. She still wouldn’t walk down to open the door for him.

But she had opened a window.

Striding away, he turned back to the house and took a running leap at the window. As he grabbed hold of the windowsill, she stumbled back. Quickly, he hauled himself inside. When he straightened, she sat on the edge of a bed, staring at him, both hands clapped over her mouth.

Kneeling in front of her, he gently pulled her hands down. “Stop denying what we both want. Don’t try to push me away anymore. I know now that you love me, and that’s why you let me go. You thought you were doing the right thing, and hell, at the time, you probably were. I needed to absorb what had happened. But I’m here now, and I want you more than I’ve wanted anything in my life.”

Longing filled her gaze, along with a lingering reserve. She stroked his cheek. “What if I activate the geas? What if I accidentally say something it takes as an order—or what if I actually give you an order? Go to the store, and get some milk. Pick me up a sandwich on your way home. Order a pizza for tonight, will you? People say things like that all time.”

“I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers.” Giving in to what he had been wanting to do for a long time, he pulled her into his arms. The rightness of her body aligning with his brought such relief, he sighed and laid his head on her shoulder. Her arms tightened around him. “If you activate the geas somehow, I’ll tell you to cut it out, and you’ll stop. We can’t live our lives in fear of it.”

Her breath shuddered, and she tightened her arms. “We could if you left. You could have the entire world—everywhere except for where I am.”

“I don’t want the entire world.” He pressed his lips against her neck. “I want you. I’m not going to lie to you, Sidonie. I think it will probably get messy sometimes, and I know we’ll make mistakes. Neither of us has lived a normal life, and even when people have the best of intentions, they still hurt each other. But do you know what that damn puck said to me the other day?”

She nestled against him. “What?”

“He said, ‘What would we have if we didn’t have forgiveness?’” Closing his eyes, he breathed in her scent. With her becoming a lycanthrope, it had changed. It was deeper, wilder, and it resonated with all the wild places inside him. “We can make this work. We have to make it work. I want you too much to let go, and I will do anything I have to do in order to keep you. Anything.”

“I want you too, so much,” she whispered.

He murmured in her ear, “Then take me.”

* * *

Take me, he said.

It had been so impossible. Now could it really be that simple?

Pulling back, Sid searched his face. She saw nothing but love and determination.

“That whole resurrection thing is totally on me,” she told him. “But this one is on you.”

Laughter, like fire, lit his gaze. “I’ll take full responsibility,” he promised. “You can throw this back in my face every time we have an argument.”

“I’ll plan on it.” Sudden tears flooded her eyes. Their separation was still too close and raw for her to joke very much.