Page 1 of Urn My Love

“If you could pick up your pace a little instead of stopping to inspect every plant and rock we pass, we’d already be at the lodge and enjoying a cold drink and a relaxing evening.”

I couldn’t hide my snort.

“What? It’s the truth! If I didn’t have to escort you, I could’ve made the journey in half the time.” August turned on his horse, pinning me with his moss-green eyes.

Shrugging, I pretended to be unaffected by his attention. “I’m not denying you would already be at the lodge if not for the burden of my presence.”

August’s eyes narrowed. “Then why the snort?”

Don’t say it, Iolani…

I just couldn’t help myself. “Since you bring so much joy to every room you exit, I’m finding it hard to believe anyone could find it possible to enjoy an evening in your presence.”

August scowled, but not before I caught the twitch at the corner of his mouth. Despite his best efforts to act as though he despised being stuck with me, he’d nearly laughed and I knew it.

He faced forward again, leaving me to stare at his back… a broad back that tapered to a tight waist. I hated how much I enjoyed watching the muscles beneath his shirt flex as he guided his horse along the trail.

From the moment August had shown up on Ryls’ doorstep, I’d been thrown headfirst into one of the most confusing and frustrating experiences of my life—which was saying a lot since it had been less than a month since I was ripped away from the only world I’d ever known and shoved through the veil.

He’d arrived with a small army of gryphons, all eager to greet Trevor. But the instant our eyes locked, August broke away from them and I’d watched him stride toward me. My heart had lodged itself in my throat and my thoughts swirled as I tried to understand the strength of the pull I felt to a complete stranger. And although I was new to how things worked on this side of the veil, I’d known this man was mine.

Having a mate wasn’t something I’d considered a possibility until the past few weeks, but now I wondered what it would be like to experience intimacy with a soulmate—or a man, for that matter. And when August had kneeled in front of the swing I was sitting in, and caught my hands between his, I’d never longed for anything more than to experience those firsts with him.

Before I could speak, he’d looked up at me with eyes as beautiful as an enchanted forest and said, “We will never speak about this to anyone. I’m sure you are a wonderful woman, but I am not taking a mate. Ever.”

I’d always prided myself on being an eloquent speaker, a queen who could handle herself in any situation. But finding a soulmate and simultaneously discovering he didn’t want a mate was something I hadn’t prepared for.

My throat tightened, and all I managed to whisper was a tremulous, “Why?”

The raven-haired man’s face twisted in something akin to pain as he stood glaring down at me. “Because I’m not a good man, and I know I can’t be a good mate. Not to you, not to anyone. After I offer my congratulations to Trevor, I will sleep for a few hours and then return to the mountains. My presence will never disrupt your life again.”

Without giving me time to speak, he walked away, rejoining the gryphons. Summoning the royal facade I’d perfected over the years, but was sick to death of being forced to hide behind, I pulled it around me as though it were my armor—or the comforting embrace of the weighted blanket Ryls had put on my bed. The first night I’d slept under it, I’d thought it was enchanted or possessed and was trying to smother me. But now I enjoyed its reassuring weight as I slept.

I’d claimed to have a headache, and retreated to my room, burying myself under the blanket. My plan was to stay there until the following day, hoping that would give my not-soulmate time to rest, then leave without us bumping into each other.

It hadn’t worked out that way, though. I’d barely been in my room for two hours when every muscle in my body spasmed and convulsed before going taut. My skin burned, and I kicked off the blanket to find blue flames licking over my skin. No sooner had they appeared, then they disappeared, leaving my body feeling colder than ice.

Goosebumps spread across my skin, and each ragged breath was visible in the air. Needle-like pain stabbed every inch of my body, as though frostbite was setting in. But how was that possible? Frostbite wasn’t really a phoenix type of problem.

Before I could do more than whimper, my vision turned to absolute darkness. No, not completely dark. Something moved in the corner and I struggled to focus on it. Slowly, I cleared away enough of the shadows and blur to look around. It wasn’t my room I was seeing; it was a room I didn’t recognize.

Lifting my head, I stared out a window that overlooked a sprawling forest that seemed to extend as far as the eyes could see. My body suddenly turned from the window, and I realized with a start it wasn’t my body. I was simply a passenger, viewing the world through someone else’s eyes.

A pale hand with perfectly manicured, black-tipped fingernails picked up a brochure and flipped it open. The cover read Amber Bluff Lodge and showed a large wooden cabin surrounded by towering trees. Another page showed a sprawling barn and smiling people riding horses down a trail.

Before I could read the back, my head began to ache, and my vision blurred. The brochure fluttered to the table, landing next to a chessboard with pieces scattered across the board.

With my stomach pitching wildly, I tried to focus, desperate to figure out whose eyes I was viewing the world through. My eyes darted from piece to piece on the chessboard, hoping to find a clue there. It was useless, though. Darkness bled from the edges, and the last thing my eyes landed on was the black knight before I was swallowed up by nothingness.

The return to my body was violent, as though someone was ramming my consciousness back into my body.

“What’s wrong? Talk to me!” a deep voice growled.

My eyelids fluttered open, and I looked into the eyes of the last person on earth I wanted to see.

The man who’d made it clear he didn’t want me.

I opened my lips to demand an answer, but my stomach churned and sent bile rushing up my throat. Clamping a hand over my mouth, I lurched off the bed, only to discover my trembling legs were too weak to support me.

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