She could have smiled at the commanding tone that both sides of Lucan had mastered. “You can’t stop me.” The wraith took a step back and walked away from her.
She rushed to keep up with him. “Wait, damn it.”
The bastard didn’t so much as reconsider a single step he took. Growling, she snatched the dagger from the sheath strapped to her calf and fired it at him.
A moment before the blade would have lodged between his shoulder blades, he turned phantom and it wedged harmlessly into the ground in front of him. She cursed under her breath.
A menacing slash of teeth followed her act of desperation, and then he threw the dagger back, the blade embedding in the tree only inches from her head.
Frustration gnawed through the last of her patience, and when she caught up with him, she shoved him from behind. “He needs to know that I love him.” Lucan was hers more than he would ever be the wraith’s or Rhiannon’s or anyone else bent on making a claim on him.
It seemed so stupid that she’d once believed that turning away from him would save her from heartbreak. She knew now that the only way to really save herself—to save them both—meant loving him more fiercely than ever.
She shoved the wraith again, needing to take action, to fight for what she wanted until there wasn’t any fight left in her.
Pivoting and grabbing her arms, the wraith shook her. “Are you done?”
“No.” She drove her palms into his chest, vaguely satisfied when he stumbled back a step. “I’m not done.” Her back slammed into a tree, her body pinned by the wraith’s.
“Stop.”
“He needs to know the truth.” She didn’t know how much longer she could be the only one fighting for them. Briana jammed her arms up and out, breaking free long enough to smash a fist into his jaw. “He needs to know that he’s my mate.”
Pain flared along Lucan’s jaw and he staggered back as much from the blow as the words that thundered in his head.
Briana took another swing at him, and he barely got out of the way, struggling to separate the foggy details of awareness from an earlier dream.
“What did you say?”
“That he needs to know he’s my mate,” she snapped like she was talking to someone else.
He blocked the next fist she threw at him, jerking her around, trapping her arm against her stomach as he yanked her back to his chest. Her breaths came fast and hard, but she relaxed against him—and then slammed her head back into his.
Not that she left him time to process either. A sharp kick caught him in the thigh, and he grabbed her ankle, hauling her toward him. She raked her claws across his chest.
He hissed out a breath. “Easy, kitten.”
She hesitated. “Luc?” She didn’t wait for him to acknowledge her. She threw herself at him—hard—and they hit the ground. She half straddled him, her palms trapping his face in her hands. “You’re back.”
He slid his fingers over hers, her warmth banishing the cold forever making him feel empty inside. “Is it true?” Caught in a vicious place between denial and hope, he forced himself to meet her gaze.
She nodded.
“You never said anything.” At her raised brow, he clarified, “Aside from after what happened at Pendragon’s.”
“You said you didn’t want to be with me. And I stupidly believed you.” She sounded unsure about which one of them she was most annoyed with.
“You’re not going to hit me again, are you?” He found himself grinning even though the news shook him to the core.
The stunning woman sitting in his lap wasn’t meant for anyone but him. He didn’t know how fate had conspired to make it happen, and now that he knew, he couldn’t imagine not being with her.
He smoothed her hair back from her face, drinking in every inch of her like he hadn’t done it a thousand times already. “How long have you known?”
“Right before what happened with Tristan and Kennedy. I wasn’t fully immortal before…before everything changed,” she added, guessing he was thinking that far back. “If I had known then, I doubt I would be sane or alive by now.”
He frowned. “The Forgotten?” He’d crossed paths with gargoyles trapped in their beast form, all traces of their humanity gone. Everything inside him went still as the next thought sank in. “That’s what you meant at the start of the competition, when you said your family couldn’t save you.”
He understood now why she’d felt compelled to stay. Winning Excalibur could give her a shot at undoing the mate bond.
“It would never have worked,” she said, seeming to read his mind. Her thumb swept across his bottom lip. “I was crazy to think I could ever choose to let you go. I love you too much.”
His eyes slid shut, his heart thumping so hard he could feel the rapid-fire pulse of it at the back of his throat. He shook his head as though it could undo what had been said. “I hurt you.”
She tugged his hand until it spanned the throat he’d been unable to let go of before the wraith had taken over. “I’m fine.”
“I could have—”
Her mouth closed over his, cutting him off. Fast and hot and wild, she kissed him as though he might be snatched away at any moment. “You didn’t,” she breathed against his lips.
He buried his hands in her hair, taking another drugging taste of her. He couldn’t have pushed her away if he tried. She was in his blood, a part of him for better or worse. “The wraith,” he began, compelled to give her one more chance to change her mind, although the darkness inside him was the least of the obstacles facing them.
“Has always known.” Her eyes widened. “That’s why he takes control. To keep you from pulling away. Because he’s always known what you’ve refused to admit.”
Lucan held his breath, afraid he knew what she was going to say, afraid he might never voice the words if she didn’t.
The same tentative smile as the night by the lake curved her lips. “That you love me as much as I love you.”
He buried his face against her throat, holding onto her. Rhiannon had never possessed the ability to destroy him, but Briana could tear him down and he would never be able to come back from that.
She stroked the back of his head. “I don’t care what you are now or that your homicidal other half has the sparkling personality of a pet rock. It’s you and me.”
He would have laughed if not for the growl that rose up inside him.
“We’ll find a way.” She touched her forehead to his. “Say it,” she coaxed. “We’ll find a way.”
He felt the words rise to his lips, but how could he promise her what still seemed impossible? Even winning Excalibur didn’t guarantee his freedom. It was easy to believe Rhiannon would give anything for a chance to awaken her son, even release a wraith from service, but the goddess had proven over and over how fickle and cruel she could be.
What if she released Lucan and lashed out at Briana instead, a final reminder of the power Rhiannon had held over him? Could he take that chance? The thought of losing her to Rhiannon’s wrath was nearly as crippling as losing her to the animal that would take over if Briana couldn’t be with her mate.
He wouldn’t allow either to happen to her.
“Luc?”
He cupped Briana’s cheek. Over and over she’d trusted him when he was sure he hadn’t deserved it, put her faith in him when he’d tried so hard to push her away, and he refused to let her down again. “I’ll do
