“That’s understandable. You don’t know what happened to him?”

“No, that part hasn’t returned to me,” I admitted with a frown. “Whether there’s still a spell lingering or I never heard the specifics, I don’t know. The last I remember of him was at a meeting in the city hall. It was a debate about monsters and their right to purchase land over the barrier that Tee and I attended as figureheads. We saw Zadok outside, and he came over to us, thanking me for being present. He’d alluded to the possibility that he was courting someone, that he had an engagement elsewhere so he was in a rush, but after that day, I never heard from him again. He was just… gone.”

It was strange having memories slot back into place after so many years. Especially the events that had followed, which I’d also stored in the back of my mind. Around that time, Teighan and I were seventy or so years into our stint in Edenglas, and having the dates laid out made me realize their possible significance. It was almost a year—eight months to be exact—after Zadok’s disappearance that I’d felt a shift in my soul that I couldn’t explain. A stronger tether anchoring me to that realm. I’d brushed it off as a warning of some kind, the spite in me fighting against my father’s bargain, knowing I was near the end of my time there, but it all suddenly clicked.

What I’d actually felt was my soulmate coming into existence.

I’d felt Luca.

“A woman?”

I blinked from my thoughts. “Hm?”

“Was it a woman he was meeting? A human?” my mate asked, and I nodded.

“I believe so. Whoever it was, they were certainly a romantic attachment. I could tell by the way he smiled when he mentioned it.”

“So, he had someone to keep returning for,” he mumbled under his breath before adding, “Do you remember how long ago that meeting happened, by chance?”

I wrapped an arm around him, picking up the book he’d swapped out for the one lying across his knees. I tapped the last date entered. “Then.”

“Surprise, surprise.” He laughed, his sky-blue eyes glistening at the edges as he glanced up at me, his smile hopeful. “Could he be my dad?”

“It’s a possibility. He spent a lot of time in the human realm, and…” I trailed off, and Luca tilted his head, the look he gave me a reflection of one I’d seen before.

“What?”

I combed my fingers through his curls, smiling down at him. “You have his eyes. Not the color—yours are bluer, more ethereal than any I’ve ever seen—but the shape. The way they crease when you’re happy, the spark you get when you’re talking about something you love. If he’s not your father then it’s a phenomenal coincidence.”

Luca sniffled, a single tear tracking down his cheek. I sensed relief, wonder, elation, but no sadness, so I just held him, smoothing my hands over his back to keep him grounded.