If Bane hadn’t agreed to fight in the Terran All War, he never would have met Nola. Never would have enjoyed her brand of fun. Never would have learned her taste or feel the hot, wet clasp of her feminine walls. Those memories were meant to be savored, not erased.

Without him, another Adwaewethian would be sent to Terra. That representative wouldn’t hesitate to murder Nola, as ordered. He stiffened. She was right; changing the past meant destroying her future.

Or making it better? What good had Bane really done for her? He pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Another warrior might prize her from the start.

“What if she betrays you, choosing Knox?”

“So many books and movies portray female friends as secretly catty and malicious to each other, but that isn’t real life. I know Vale. I love her. She loves me. I would rather die than hurt her, and she would rather die than hurt me.” Stiffening, she added, “While I won’t go mucking around in my past, I will muck around in yours. I mean, I won you over. I’ll do the same with whoever is sent in your place.”

Nola, with another full-blooded Adwaewethian? Heads will roll!

“I’ll do it,” she added. “I’ll travel back to the day your wife died.”

His chest clenched harder than ever before. So hard he was certain a rib cracked. “Why would you agree to that?” Letting me go without a fight.

The knowledge angered him. And damn it, the knowledge hurt like hell. Even though he was to blame!

Silence. Crackling with tension.

“Did you and your wife want to have children?” she asked softly.

Clench, clench. “We did. What about you? Do you want children?”

“I never let myself ponder the notion, too afraid I’d pass on my diseases.”

He heard sadness and despair, and rested two knuckles under her chin to tilt her head backward. A flash of lightning illuminated her lovely face, revealing tear-damp lashes and splotchy pink cheeks. But her eyes...

They broke him. Her pupils were blown, her irises an abyss of pain, both old and new. He wanted to slay her dragons, and offer their heads as gifts.

“Before any All War,” he said, “the queen issues a command—no children—and my body automatically obeys. That way, mother and child cannot be used against me. Upon my victory and return, she negates the order.”

“That’s sad. And awful. And horrifying! I’m sorry.” She swiped her watery eyes with the back of her wrist, his chest clenching all over again. “Will you try to make her reverse the order before she dies?”

He shook his head. “When you are queen, you can reverse it.”

“But not before?”

“Not before,” he confirmed.

She thought for a moment. “Let me rest and recharge, then I’ll try to navigate your memories.”