Page 174 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

His touch is comfort I do not deserve after leaving those three people behind. Still, I lean into it, holding tight to his embrace, letting myself be swallowed up in his bigness. This is the only place I feel safe, and it kills me to know that this safety will be gone sooner than I expect.

Tell him you are leaving. Tell him, Kat.

I cannot. I cling tighter to him instead.

“You make me want to give up everything and stay in these cursed human lands with you,” Rahk snarls softly in my ear, “even if it shortens my lifespan.”

I stiffen in his arms. “Shortens your life span?”

“You didn’t know?” Rahk breathes softly onto my forehead. “It is not our blood that gives us long life. It is the magic in the air. The less I breathe that air, the shorter my life is.”

I pull back in alarm. “Has your life already been shortened by the weeks you have spent here?”

He shrugs, then draws me back to himself with a soft groan. “Maybe. A few years—a decade at most.”

As if a decade is nothing. As if I am not actively sucking away his lifeforce right this moment.

“You must go back to Faerieland immediately,” I say, untangling myself from his arms even as he gives a small measure of resistance. “You should stay there and only come here when you must! How can you be careless with your life?”

He lets me forcibly push him several steps toward the door. Then he plants his heels and refuses to go any further.

“Rahk!” I protest. “You’ve got to go back!”

He brings his face down to my level, his black eyes piercing through me, his hand catching my wrist. “Stop this, Katherine.”

The knot in my throat thickens until I can hardly breathe. “I cannot have you suffering or dying. I won’t allow it. And I willnotbe the reason for it.”

He purses his lips. “I am afraid it is far too late for that, my darling.”

He pulls me into a kiss, and for the first time, the way he holds my face and my waist, the way his mouth moves against mine, is possessive. He claims me with this kiss. Then my fire returns to me, and I claim him back. This ismyhusband. He may not be mine for much longer, but for this small moment, he belongs to me and no one else.

Breaking our kiss, he cups my cheeks so softly, his eyes running over every inch of my face. “Do you want me to go? Do you want me to return to Nothril?”

Tell him a lie.

Tears gather in my eyes. I shake my head miserably.

Something sparks to life in his expression.Hope. “Do you love me, Kat?”

My lips part, my tongue frozen. If I tell him that I do love him, he will find a way for us to be together—a way that will destroy his life, his heart, and his entire future. I cannot let him do that to himself. I thought I could take this one precious moment and keep it, but now I see that is selfish of me.

I must break him now, to save him. He will despise me. And maybe, when he finally hunts me down, that hatred will make it easier for him to kill me.

“I know you are holding back from me,” he whispers softly. “I have known from the beginning. I do not know what it is, but I must. Once and for all. Deny it, Kat.”

“Deny what?”

“Deny that you love me.”

Pressure builds in my chest. This is not fair. I—

The heat of his lips brushes over my forehead. “Look me in the eye, Kat, and tell me that you don’t love me. Lie to me, Kat. Lie to me. You’ve done it many times. So do it again. Tell me that when I catch you staring at me, it’s not because you have feelings for me. Tell me that when I come close and your cheeks turn pink, it’s not because my nearness affects you. Tell me that the tears you fight right now—tell me they are not because you care.”

“I’m not answering that question,” I growl, angry and defensive and too heartbroken to either admit the truth or lie again.

“Then you’re a coward.”

“Am I?” I push away from him, my voice rising. “Or maybe I just don’t like the rules you’ve set up for this game. Would you believe me if I said no? Would you believe me if I said yes? Or would you just call me a liar and believe whatever you want to?”

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