Page 58 of Titan’s Mate

She kissed his cheek, then said, “And you hate this other idea of Tyr’s, don’t you.”

He moved slightly, so he was facing her, and traced the bones of her face with his free hand. “I love your spirit,” he told her. “How you… how you love all the little things in life, and you try to enjoy every moment. Every bit of sunshine. Every story. Every balloon in the Macy’s parade. Every cheese ball. Every rubber duck. Every Tater Tot.”

She leaned her forehead against his and added, “Every kiss. Every touch. Every moment with you.”

He closed his eyes against the pain. “I don’t want anyone to take that away from you. But I don’t want to lose you, either.”

“I’m afraid of my spirit being alone in a cage,” she admitted. “But I don’t want to lose you, either.”

They held each other for a long time, not saying anything.

Finally he said, “I’m thinking when you cross over, I could go with you.”

She pulled back. “No!” She cupped his face in both hands. “Oh, no. Please tell me you won’t do that. Your crew would be devasted.”

He refused to look at her. “They’d understand.”

“I do not want you to give up your life. Not for me.”

He did look at her then, into those beautiful autumn-leaf eyes. “But if I don’t, we’ll probably never see each other again. Even on the other side. Not if you’re in your panda paradise.”

She said firmly, “I’ll make them let you in. In about a hundred years, when you toddle up to the gates after a long and happy life. I will annoy the panda gods until they open up and let you in.”

That vision made him laugh a little, in spite of himself. “I’m sure you would.” But it wouldn’t be in a hundred years. He wouldn’t last one, without her in his life.

“And Sebbie will put in a good word for you,” she added.

“Hate to break it to you, but I’m not sure Sebbie has an actual spirit.”

“Bite your tongue.”

That made him laugh again. How could she always do that—make him laugh in the midst of heartbreak and pain?

She smoothed the stubble on his cheeks. “I really do wish I could stay here and haunt you, like Nick. That would be awesome. I could drop things on your head and prank the twins invisibly.” Her voice wobbled a little. “And you could visit me in the spirit world.”

But they both knew that couldn’t happen. The demon had a hold on her, and he would take her unless she was safe in the realm of the xióngmāo.

He kissed one of her dimples, and then the other. “I told you what I want,” he said. “But you haven’t told me what you want. Whatever it is, I’ll do it for you.”

“I know.” The perfect faith in her voice broke his heart. She hesitated, and then said, “Do you think we could look for the artifact? If we find it, then at least we know what our options are. And if we don’t…”

If they didn’t, all they could do was wait for the end, or try claiming each other and see what the mating bond would do.

“We could try,” he said. “Raines took it when he took the rest of our treasures. The question is, what happened to them after he died. There weren’t many panthers left—they may have just taken everything and gone underground.”

“Then I guess it would be hard to find them.”

“Probably, although I know Tyr, Remy and Brandon would use all their resources to do it. But I’m thinking… there’s a chance it might still be at Raines’s compound. He was a secretive, paranoid, power-hungry son of a bitch, and those artifacts were powerful. He might not have told anyone where he kept them.”

“You all didn’t look, after he died?”

He shook his head. “I was… in a bad place. I wasn’t thinking about artifacts or treasure. I know Brandon and the others checked out the compound later and it had been abandoned. But they didn’t know there were other artifacts, so they didn’t look for them.”

He looked into her eyes. “You sure you want to do this?”

“I just want the choice.”

He nodded. Whatever she wanted, he’d move heaven and earth to get it for her. Always.