When he eased back a little more, she rolled to her side, curled into a ball and sobbed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The secret to lowering his guard down!

WHAT HAD HAPPENED to Nola?

Bane picked her up as gently as possible. Her tears rained over his chest, stinging like acid, and she shuddered with increasing intensity. Though her weight barely registered, the gash in his shoulder tore, growing longer, wider. He didn’t care.

Nola’s good humor had survived a trek through the arctic, abduction—twice!—separation from her sister, bomb blasts and Bane’s poor treatment. Until now, nothing had broken her.

What had she seen? He could guess the reason Micah had been there—Aveline had snuck him onto Terra to kill any and all royals.

Rage boiled in Bane’s veins, a shout of fury rushing up his throat; he gritted his teeth, muffling the sound. The bitch had only ever left destruction in her wake.

In two weeks, the war will end, and Aveline’s downfall will begin.

Fourteen days. Both a blink and an eternity.

In three easy strides, he carried Nola to the bed and eased her upon the mattress. Pitching her body to the side, she poured her misery into a pillow.

As a boy, he’d witnessed his mother and little sister crying. During the course of his relationship with Meredith, she’d cried only once, when Aveline beat her to a pulp for daring to “speak out of turn.” Before that fateful day, a woman’s tears hadn’t bothered him; he’d known he could fix the problem, whatever it was. This gutted him. How could he repair a past he couldn’t visit, and an ability he didn’t understand?

During moments of emotional upheaval, Meredith had requested his absence, always. With Nola, he didn’t ask for permission. He simply settled atop the mattress, propped his back on the ruined headboard and shifted her against his chest. To his surprise, she didn’t resist.

As he stroked her silken hair and cooed nonsense in her ear, she calmed. However, the opposite proved true for Bane. He continued to recall the devastating pain he’d seen in her eyes. What had she seen?

Although, if he were honest, he’d admit she’d experienced pain before traveling to the past. He replayed the last hour in his head. After her climaxes, she’d been happy. Glowing. They’d spoken of her ability to time-travel and—

Comprehension.

That. That was when this awful pain had first made an appearance. Because, after parting with her virginity, her lover asked her to save his wife. Now, regret ambushed him.

Upon Nola’s return, the pain had increased. So, something she’d discovered had totally and completely upended her world.