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Tell me.

Maybe this time he would.

Maybe this time fear wouldn’t win.

Maybe—

Everything?

Knox’s voice.

My breath released in a rush.

Everything.

Alaric’s answer.

The empty cellar rose around me. Bare walls. Mounting holes. Dust. Clean tracks where the truth had been dragged away before I could reach it. My hand lowered and I stared at the door.

“I love you.”

Barely a whisper.

Too quiet for him to hear.

Maybe that’s why I allowed myself to say it.

Then I walked away.

Ghost was waiting near the rear door. Of course he was. He straightened when he saw me. His gaze moved to the book tucked under my arm, then back to my face.

“Going somewhere?”

There was no accusation in his voice. That somehow made it worse.

“Outside.”

His expression changed.

Barely.

“Nyssa.”

“I need air.”

He glanced toward the study and that thin line of gold still burning beneath the door behind me.

Alaric.

Twenty feet behind me.

Maybe less.

I looked back at Ghost. “Am I allowed air?”

His jaw tightened.

There it was.