The next day, we rose with the sun and resumed our journey. Lorcan kept looking back even after the Temple disappeared. Despite his wrongdoings, I felt sorry for him. Especially knowing that I was blessed to have a mate of my own.

Even if that mate made me want to throttle him. I twisted the reins in my gloved hands, creating a squeaking sound as leather met leather and tried very hard to keep my expression neutral. Calix had barely spoken two words to me this morning, and those words had been little more than grunts in response to my greeting. Perhaps I preferred him sleep deprived, because that version had been far kinder than this surly monster.

Tired of hearing nothing but my huffs of irritation and the clip of hooves against the winding road, I said, "I'm curious about something."

Calix tilted his head as if he was listening but remained silent. Lorcan flicked his eyes between his brother and me and shook his head.

"Only one thing?" he teased.

"I'm sure I could come up with more."

Calix's interjection cut my laughter short. "Of course you could because you have little sense when it comes to your self preservation."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

His horse halted abruptly, and he held his response until I came alongside him. "Only that curiosity is dangerous, but you do not seem to understand that. You just follow it, and one day that is going to get you killed."

"If you're referring to last night," I hissed, my saddle creaking as I leaned toward him, "then I'm afraid you're not going to make your point very well. Because what a way to go."

"You think this is a joke?"

His black hair, damp from a light, early morning rain, curled around his ears, and I very much wished I could reach out and run my lingers along the silky coil. But right now, I didn't know if my touch would bring him comfort or push him over the edge. All I knew was that this close to him, his emotions bled into me, tying my stomach in knots until I thought I might vomit.

Hand over my abdomen, I swallowed hard. "Jokes are supposed to be funny, and I don't find anything funny about whatever this is."

"I warned you last night, and still you sought me out."

"Yes, well, I don't remember a lot of hesitation on your part when you fucked my breasts."

Lorcan coughed, then cleared his throat. I didn't care that he was listening. It wasn't like privacy was available around this lot. If they couldn't see you, they could hear you. Or smell you.

"Luna," Calix growled.

"No. I'm tired of the bullshit." I ground my teeth together and sought the right words. The ones that would make him understand. "You didn't warn me last night. You made the decision for me."

His anger slipped. "I didn't. I was trying to give you space to think about it."

"Calix, do you want me as your mate?"

"More than I want to draw my next breath."

"Then why do you not think I want the same thing?"

"Because you don't understand what it really means to choose me."

"A long life bound to you and Faerie, right?"

"Centuries, Luna. Millenia even. And the longer we are bonded together, the more intense it will be if something happens to the other. I would be dooming you to madness."

"Okay. I'm still not dissuaded."

"But—"

"Don't you see? Before I came here, I lived through the fantasies in my books. I was so lonely, and I could not fathom living another thirty or forty years like that. It seemed like a miserable existence."

"You could find a human lover," Calix whispered, his entire body pulsing with a pain so strong it nearly undid me. "To make those years rich."

"I couldn't. Calix, I nearly died in the human realm because I needed you. My body shut down, which means my only choice would be to live here. Close enough to you so that I don't die. I suppose I could live close enough to you to be healthy and choose a few Fae lovers when I grew bored."

I shrieked as black mist enveloped me, breaking me apart, and putting me back together again. Calix had teleported us out of Lorcan's sight, and his hands were like iron cuffs around my wrists as he held them over my head.

"You didn't like that idea very much, did you? It's one thing to believe it's happening in the human realm, and another to be a witness here. Would you be able to feel me? When my lover makes me come?"

"Yes," he hissed through his bared teeth. "And I could witness the horror on your face when I killed him for touching you."

I grinned. "I know you think I don't feel as deeply as you do because I grew up human, but I assure you, I do. It's you, or no one. And I would risk madness for just a moment of experiencing life with you at my side. And every second we're given beyond that would be a blessing."

"Little moon," Calix said, his voice shaking. "Are you certain?"

"I choose you. Today. Tomorrow. A thousand years from now. It will still be you."