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Everything was far from right with our world, but perhaps he never had to learn the truth. We’d live out this final go-around I’d made. Together, forever, just like he’d said he wanted. The thought made me lightheaded. Was it possible, after so long, that we might get our happy ending? It could happen if we wanted it to. I had that power.
Adair’s obsession with me was all that stood in our way. If I could convince him to leave, whatever the cost, it would be worth it. Valentine would never know the truth. And what he did not know could never hurt him.
Strange, to have such hope after so long. I’d begun this fantasy to hurt him, and in doing so, I’d hurt us both.
He might one day forgive me. But not yet.
First, I’d find Adair.
The carriage rocked to a halt on Minerva’s main street, outside the toy store. I climbed down and pulled my collar up against a gust of wind. Flickering streetlamps fought the gloom, but their efforts seemed futile. Snow spun furiously, warning of a storm.
I paid and thanked the carriage driver, then entered the store. The bell tinkled, and a blast of wind pushed me inside, but as snow flurries dusted the rug around my boots, I froze. The displays, the puzzles, the trains, the toys… They were all scattered about, as though the storm had already arrived and torn through my shop.
Adair!It had to be.
He’d come for Val. WherewasVal?
I stepped around a shattered train. “Val!”
“Here.” He stood facing the fireplace, his back to me.
Relief fluttered through my heart. He was all right.
“Val, what happened? Did Adair do this?”
“No, no, not Adair.” He turned. Why did he have the fireplace poker clutched in his hand? “Idid this.”
His face was pale, his eyes red-rimmed. Fury poured off him as hot as the flames boiling in the fireplace behind him.
“Tell me they’re lies. Tell me you did not do it and I will believe you.”
He was seething, and my fluttering heart fell to the earth like a bird shot from the sky.
I swallowed and stepped back. Adairhadbeen here, and he’d told Val everything.
I should have known it wouldn’t last. I should have known Adair would destroy the one good thing in my life like a jealous child breaking another’s toys. I’d kill the fae for this, regardless of what it would do to me. “Val, what did he tell you?”
“He said this is all you,all of it!” He swept the poker in an arc. “Worse than that, he said…” Val’s voice hitched. “He said I’ve been living this life over and over, trapped in a loopby you.Not just a few times, but a whole lifetime, Devere.My lifetime. Is that true? Please, by God, tell me it’s not true. Tell me you didn’t do it.”
The dream was over.
We’d been so close to finding a happy ending, and now it shattered. It was over. Adair had poisoned everything, manipulating my illusions, my worlds, for his gain. Now he’d destroyed Val’s love for me. I saw it in his eyes, the regret, but also the same boiling hatred I’d seen so long ago, after a kiss between two boys.
“Adair—”
“This is not about Adair. It’s about you!” He approached as though he meant to use the poker, forcing me backward. “God damn you, Devere. Answer the question! Is it true?”
Unlike the fae, Icouldlie. I’d been lying all this time, to him, to myself, to everyone. I could lie again and twist this all onto Adair. I would have before last night, but I loved Val, and it was time he knew the monster he thought he loved in me.
A tear fell from his right eye.
We both knew it was over. “Yes.”
He stopped with a few strides left between us. “None of it is real? Nothing?” He pointed at a doll on the nearby display. “That? Is that real?”
I swallowed again. “What is real? We’re here, in this moment. It can be real if we say it is.”
He swung the poker, smashing the doll, scattering pieces across the shop. “But it’s not! It’s a lie, Devere! Can’t you see that? This…? Is this real?” He pointed to a train, one of a few left on what remained of the tracks.
