Page 68 of The Other Side of the Mirror

“Do you even want me touching you right now?” Bash asked hoarsely.

I could feel the rage radiating off him, even as he backed away. Something in the middle of my chest felt like it was cracking wide open.

“Please—” My voice broke. “Please don’t leave.”

Bash stilled a moment as something like longing flashed across his face. “Is it okay if I hold you?”

I nodded. Then he crossed the room and gathered me in his arms, sitting on the bed so I was across his lap. Stroking my wet hair, he held me so tightly I knew he could feel the tremors snaking through my body.

I looked up at him through damp lashes. “Will you…” I cleared my throat. “Will you stay with me tonight?”

“Always,” Bash murmured, placing a soft kiss on the crown of my head. “I’m here for as long as you need me, hellion.”

I nodded, nestling into the warmth of his chest as his arms held me together.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered into my hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner. I’m so sorry I left you there in the first place.”

“At some point I fell for it too,” I said, looking down at my hand on his chest. Bash tensed beneath me, but I silenced whatever he was about to say with a small shake of my head. “Even when I thought I was human, I didn’t believe in soulmates. So I never planned to buy in to the whole predestined thing. When he brought up a betrothal, that ceremony, I thought we could wait for the bond to fall in place and figure out how to stop the curse from there. But, somewhere along the line, I started to believe in that destiny. That there was someone meant for me. That my reticence to everything would fade away the second I accepted that bond. And I trusted in that. I thought it was real, right up until I heard that he’d lied from his own lips.”

Remembering the moment my heart cracked wide open with that betrayal, I pressed in closer to Bash, resting my cheek against his damp shirt. When I looked up at him, Bash’s eyes were filled with an endless, icy wrath. His arms were steel bands around me, as if he could protect me from what had already happened.

My eyelids were growing heavy. I blinked once, then again more slowly, fighting the sleep that was tugging me away. Too afraid of the dreams that waited for me.

Bash gently laid me down on the bed, tucking the covers around me. I made a small noise of distress as he tried to disentangle us.

“I won’t go anywhere,” Bash murmured. “You’re safe.”

Shadows stroked down my arms, sweet and soft, seducing me into sleep.

Chapter29

Eva

It was dark when I woke. I stiffened, fear coursing through me. But snow glimmered faintly in the moonlight outside the arched windows, reminding me of where I was…and who was with me.

Bash lounged beside me on the bed, close, yet carefully not touching me. His face was uncharacteristically somber, his head bent, both eyes covered with one hand. He looked exhausted. I wondered if he had slept since the night I dreamwalked to him or if he had been solely focused on getting me to safety ever since.

But here he was, watching over me as I slept. Myanima.

I sucked in a breath, and his head whipped toward me. A thousand emotions swirled in those two-toned eyes, but he merely asked, “Do you want something to eat?”

Right on cue, my stomach grumbled, and I nodded. Slipping from the bed, I wrapped the slightly damp towel I had fallen asleep in more tightly around me as I walked to the bathroom. There I found a black silk robe that I quickly replaced the towel with, tying it at my waist.

When I walked back into the room, a small tray of fresh bread, cheeses, nuts, and fruits waited for me. Bash was adding honey to a steaming mug of tea, exactly the way I liked it. I swallowed a yawn, still groggy from the last vestiges of sleep, then climbed into bed. He set the tray over my lap, watching me intently as I ate.

Breaking apart a chocolate-filled roll, I stuffed a piece in my mouth before noticing my plate was near-empty. “Did you…want any?”

Bash’s mouth quirked, but he shook his head. I polished off the rest of it, swallowing the last of the tea, my stomach full for the first time in days.

“Do you want more?”

I shook my head, and Bash removed the tray, placing it by the door. He walked back slowly, hovering by the side of the bed.

“What time is it?”

Bash shrugged. “Late. You should go back to sleep.”

“And what about you?”

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