Something changed in him, as if waking himself from a spell. The impulsivity fell from Ash like raindrops off a roof. Frozen in his stance, his features transitioned from fierce to contemplative to soft. A muscle in his jaw throbbed as he eyed her. The copper reever looked down at her, the fury of his passion turning into a different emotion as he drank her in.

He closed his eyes as he exhaled slowly, unmoving. It was clear it had taken him a great force of will to stop himself. “Why are you doing this?”

She swallowed, feeling the nerves of rejection even more profoundly now that she was vulnerable. “No, don’t stop.” She reached for him again, hoping to recapture the magic of the moment. It had been working. They’d been connecting. They’d been healing. “Please, I want…I don’t want to lose you. I—”

He opened his honey-colored eyes again, and his brows knit with a deep sadness.

The moment rushed between them, snipping the taut cord of tension that had drawn them into this intimate, vulnerable embrace. The strand of the moment fell on either side of them. As the energy shifted, she relaxed the grip she’d had around him with her thighs, sinking down into the bed once more. Her eyes looked up to touch his, but he looked away. He remained poised above her while she waited for him to speak the thought that had hung itself on his shoulders.

He was quiet as he said, “You’re not going to lose me. You’re not going to lose the reevers. It’s I who thought I was going to lose you tonight.”

“Ash, I–”

He lowered himself slowly to the space next to her. Despite the fact Amaris remained fully naked, he draped an arm around her midsection, turning her to face him. She tried to bring her knees up to her chest, wanting to curl into a ball. When he brought his hand to touch her face, she felt the tears that she didn’t know she had been holding back. The weight of everything crashed through her. She wouldn’t be forgetting. No, not tonight.

“We’re angry because we care. Don’t you know that by now?”

She turned her chin away, shame burning through her. She understood why she’d thought this was what she needed and wanted in order to restore their intimacy, but her miscalculation made her sick. She wished she could turn back time. She wouldn’t drop her towel. She wouldn’t betray Malik in the forest. She never would have met the demons responsible for this turmoil.

“Stop that,” he chided softly, pulling her into a hug. “You’re a witch and a bastard. Just let me be angry. But you don’t have to do or be anything other than what you are. Except for the witchcraft. Maybe don’t do that one anymore.”