Two weeks since she’d fled, sobbing, from the heart of the catacombs, and stumbled out of The Belthew Building to call Gwen and Drustan from a pay phone.

Two weeks since they’d joined her in London and searched every inch of the damned building.

At first, when Gwen and Drustan had taken her back to Castle Keltar, she’d been in shock, incapable of talking. She’d huddled in a darkened bedchamber, dimly aware that they were hovering nearby. Eventually, she’d managed to tell them what had happened—the part of it she’d seen—then she’d curled in bed, replaying it over and over in her mind, trying to fathom what had really transpired.

Realizing that they would never know for sure.

All they knew for certain was that Dageus was gone.

For two weeks, Chloe lived in a kind of excruciating suspension, a bundle of tension and grief . . . and treacherous hope. It wasn’t as if she’d actually seen his dead body. So, maybe . . .

So, nothing.

Two weeks of waiting, praying, hoping against hope.

And each day of watching Gwen and Drustan together had been the purest kind of hell. Drustan touched Gwen with Dageus’s hands. He lowered Dageus’s face to kiss her. He spoke with Dageus’s deep, sexy voice.

And he wasn’t Dageus. He wasn’t hers to hold, though he looked like he should be. He was Gwen’s, and Gwen was pregnant, and Chloe wasn’t. She knew, because Gwen had persuaded her to take an EPT a few days ago, arguing that if she tested positive it would give her something to hold onto. Unfortunately, she hadn’t gotten the cheery news Gwen had gotten seven months ago.

Her test result had been negative.

Like her life. A great big fat negative.

“I don’t think you should be alone,” Gwen protested.

She tried to smile reassuringly, but from the look on Gwen’s face, she suspected she’d managed only a frightening baring of teeth. “I’ll be okay, Gwen. I can’t stay here any longer. I can’t stand seeing . . .” She trailed off, not wanting to hurt Gwen’s feelings.

“I understand,” Gwen said, wincing. She’d felt much the same when she’d thought Drustan was forever lost to her, and had met his descendants. She could only imagine what Chloe must feel each time she looked at Dageus’s twin. And Chloe didn’t have the promise of his babies to cling to as she’d had.

The worst of it was, there were no answers. Dageus was simply gone. Gwen had clung to hope too, in those first few days, until Drustan had confided that since the night his brother had disappeared he’d not been able to feel the unique twin-bond he and Dageus had always shared.