Page 80 of The Emperor of Evening Stars

My mate.Claim her.

My magic is spilling out of me, darkening the room. All those years of denying myself; I’m about to crack us wide open.

“Itis,” she says, shocked.

I approach Callie, who looks spitting mad.

Claimher.

“Youbastard,” she swears. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

If I admit to her the truth, I won’t let her slip away again.

Is she ready for that?

The devil knows I am.

She pokes me in the chest. “Were. You?”

I glance down at her finger, my good nature slipping away as she challenges me. My darker impulses rise to the surface.

I let a smile slip out as I step in closer to her, our chests touching. “Are you sure you want to know my secrets, cherub?” I say. “They will cost you much more than a wrist full of beads.”

“Des, I just want answers from you.”

Take—claim—keep.

I pick up a lock of her hair. “What can I say? Fairies can be incredibly jealous, selfish lovers.”

… understatement …

“You should’ve told me.”

Told her when precisely? In high school, when she was too young? Or when I finally managed to return to her side after seven years apart? Because that would’ve been a great icebreaker.

“Perhaps I was proud to have my wings out,” I say. “Perhaps I enjoyed the way you looked at them and the way others looked at them. Perhaps I felt things that I haven’t felt before.”

I let my wings unfurl, careful to release them slowly. My magic is all-consuming. If I were to completely give into it now, it would cloak the room into darkness and release all sorts of pheromones that a siren would be especially susceptible to. I want Callie to come to me of her own volition.

“Perhaps,” I continue, “I didn’t want to tell you only to find out that you didn’t feel the same. I know how to be lethal, Callie. I know how to be just. I don’t know how to deal with you. With us. With this.”

For so long I’ve been the ruthless Bargainer and the fierce King of Night; I haven’t had practice being simply a man in love. I’m afraid I’m going to blow it.

“With what?”

She’s going to make me spell it out. I can feel my heart banging against my ribcage. When it comes to Callie, I want to give her my secrets, but her reaction also has the power to undo me.

I trace her collarbone. “I haven’t been wholly honest with you,” I say carefully.

Not exactly a shocking revelation.

“There was a question that you asked me,” I continue. “Why now? I’ve been gone seven years, Callie. So why do I come back now?”

Her brows knit. “You needed my help,” she says.

Surely she can see that for the smokescreen it is.

“A lie that became the truth,” I say.

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