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How?

Impossible.

Take us with you.

Bring us through.

Wolfe ignored them, focusing wholly on Avery instead.

“Are you with me?” she called again.

God, there was so much hope in her eyes.

How could it be that loneliness drew them here? That they believed in the other so much that it formed a bridge that was never meant to be formed?

Perhaps this was why he never moved on. Why he’d been trapped at Kilmorran. The universe knew that there would be a day where they would need each other and so it’d forced him to wait.

Looking at Avery now, nearly drowned by the sea, cold and shaking hand extended for him, he would have waited longer.

“Aye,” he said, voice rumbling in time with the tide. “I am with you.”

When Wolfe stepped from the Faerie circle, all the air around him vibrated and trembled. He felt real. Well, as real as he could. His hands were wet. The hair on the back of his neck rose below the cool air.

Avery watched him carefully, warily. Could she see the differences in him?

He navigated the slippery rocks back and stopped before her. He needed to get her out of here, back into her warm car, but…

Wolfe lifted his hand, noticing the shake within his fingers.

When he dropped it on her shoulder, he felt it.

Solid. Real. Weighted.

Avery gasped, blinking up at him with something akin to shock.

“You—you feel—” Tears formed in her eyes.

Royan Wolfe shuddered, the weight of centuries slipping from his back like droplets of rain.

On the edge of the world, curled in the mouth of the sea, Wolfe brought Avery into his arms and wept.

Chapter 19

Shivering, I collapsed back into my car.

I fumbled with my keys, finally managing to turn the engine over and crank up the heat. Sea water dripped from Wolfe’s eyelashes, rolling down his cheek before falling from his jaw to his shoulder.

Real.

So much more real than before.

I could see the freckles on his cheeks now. The threads of red woven in the brown of his hair. Like the night in the ruins, his shirt was plastered against him. Even that night, he’d been only partially formed. Tonight he was here. Boots soaked with water, dark pants stained by the sea. Scars and scrapes and red-brown eyes that made it hard to breathe.

“Here.” He held out his hands for mine and cupped them within his palms. He brought them to his mouth and blew hot air against my chilled fingers.

I watched him, mouth parted.

I felt his breath, the brush of his lips on my skin. Heat rolled through me, causing my teeth to chatter harder. The first drop of rain fell against the windshield and then the sky opened, crashing down around us.