Page 85 of To Crave Truly

I shook his hand. “Well, you’re certainly looking a lot healthier than the last time I saw you.”

“Feel it, too,” he replied with a laugh before his expression sobered. “Your being here can’t be good.”

“No,” I said, “I need to see Lori. I have—”

My heart stopped.

There, walking through the door was Iveri. But how? How was that possible?

She walked arm in arm with Lori, her smile wide and warm. She looked happy. Free. I couldn’t believe my eyes. She was there, right in front of me and I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

A noise wrenched itself from my throat, something between a gasp and a sob, and her eyes met mine for the first time in centuries.

Her smile dropped. “Iver… what are you doing here?”

Was she not happy to see me? Had I changed? Had she? Fuck, I needed to touch her, to hold her, to just—

“I have to go,” she said, before turning on her heel and fleeing, leaving me staring after her completely speechless.

“Give her a chance,” Lori said, sympathy lacing her words. “She’s been through a lot.”

“Yes. Um…” I pulled the paper from my pocket and thrust it at her. “This is for you.”

“Thanks,” she replied. I went to move past her, but she grabbed my elbow and halted my steps.

My gaze found hers and there was a reluctance buried in them. “What is it?”

She pressed her lips together, like she was holding back a secret.

“Lori, please.”

She swallowed then wet her lips. “When I found her, she’d been nearly drained of the magic that Selene had used to give her soul solidity. I used the life spark but…”

Realisation dawned. “She’s human now?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

That wouldn’t make me love her any less, but it would certainly make things more complicated. I reached out and cupped Lori’s face. Surprise flared in her eyes and a shaky breath left her lips.

“Thank you for saving her, for giving us a chance that might never have had.” I pressed my lips to her forehead and then left to find my love.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Lori

Ilooked at the crumpled piece of paper Iver had given me before he ran after Iveri. They certainly had a lot to talk about, but I had high hopes that they’d figure it out.

On the paper was a set of co-ordinates, no doubt the spot where Elspeth was buried and the place where I was supposedly going to meet my doom. That was a lot of weight to those little numbers that were handwritten in an elegant scrawl.

But it wasn’t going to be the place of my death. Not if I could help it anyway.

“What’s that?” Jasper asked as he came to peer over my shoulder.

“A note from Mordecai.”

He plucked it out of my hands and typed them into his comms device. “Looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s atop a cliff by the sea.”

“It’s where she died,” I surmised. I’d seen the vision Mordecai had shared with me in a dream, felt his pain as she took her life, and I wasn’t surprised that he’d choose that place for me to meet my end.

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