“To talk?” I spun around so fast my balance swayed and I crashed into the door. The sight of him sitting at the foot of my bed with red, puffy lips and a blush in his cheeks made me feel like I was being buried alive. My chest was so tight it burned. I felt my sternum straining against my ribcage like my heart was literally trying to burst its way out. A traitorous tear slid down my cheek, so I wiped it away with my long sleeve and then wiped my now running nose from crying. There wasn’t much to say for us but at least talking was less dangerous than his lips on mine in that bed. “Fine. Let’s talk, Cooper. Tell me something . . . Did you know? Did you know that was all fake?”

He grimaced and scratched the back of his head, which only made my gaze focus on the muscles in his arms flexing. “I mean, Tegan told me she was making me invisible and duplicated like Frankie, but I had no idea Everest was going to⁠—”

I gagged and held my hands up. “Not that. I don’t ever want to speak about that again.”

He frowned and cocked his head to the side. “Then what—oh.”

I sniffled. “Yeah, oh. Did you know?”

“No, I swear I had no idea that soulmate mark was fake.” His voice was thick and raw. “I genuinely thought it was real.”

“Tegan didn’t tell you?”

He shook his head. “That night Sweyn dragged Frankie out of the house through her dream . . . Tegan came to me and told me she had a crazy plan and asked if I would be willing to take part, so I said yes. I said I didn’t want to know what it was because . . . because I’m not that good of an actor. Tegan plays insanely dangerous tricks that rely on natural reactions or people could get killed. So I just . . . trusted her. She warned me it was messed-up and crazy but her plans always work⁠—”

“So you said yes without asking.” I nodded. “Without wanting to know.”

His face fell and the pain in his pale-green eyes made my breath catch in my throat. “Savannah, if I had known that was her plan, I would have warned you.”

I mashed my lips together to try and stop the tears, but it was useless. “And when the soulmate mark appeared, you didn’t think for a second that maybe that was the trick?”

“Honestly, no.”

A strangled cry left my lips. “Why not?”

He threw his hands up. “Because nowhere in my mind did I think Tegan would play with the emotions around a soulmate mark. But all is fair in war and I’m the one who told her not to tell me—she was going to⁠—”

“Again, no part of you thought⁠—”

“No.” His gaze blazed with passion. “I didn’t think of it for even a second.”