Everything about my soulmate and his actions were totally and completely logical, I knew that with every fiber of my being, and yet that knowledge did not diminish the pain of him loving someone else. It made me feel sick to my stomach. I wrapped my arms around my waist and bent over slightly. “You’re protecting her.”

“I’m protecting a lot of people. Yourself included.” His voice was as cold as a glacier and as steady as solid ground . . . but his eyes held a whirlpool of pain. I’d never understood when people said a person’s eyes looked haunted until right that moment. I didn’t understand what was happening, so I had nothing to lean on but the hurt.

“All is fair in love and war.” My voice was barely audible.

A dark, menacing aura pulsed out of him. He narrowed his eyes and growled. “Nothing is safe in love and war.”

Yet I did not fear him.

I shifted my weight from foot to foot, feeling uneasy in my own space. “You didn’t tell me you were my soulmate because you knew we’d get to this conversation. If I was just a girl you hooked up with, then you didn’t owe me anything.”

All of that darkness snapped. For a flash of a second I saw the brokenness in him before he reset his mask. “It is killing me to keep things from you while I stand before you.”

I had to get out of here. I couldn’t do this. Deep down I knew I wasn’t being entirely fair, but my emotions were traumatized and fragile. So I held my chin high. “Then I shall fix that for you.”

He scowled and cocked his head to the side. His voice was guarded. “What does that mean?”

“It means I can’t love you in the dark, Everest,” I said flatly. “It means while I trust you as a person, as a member of this team, I cannot give you my heart or my body while you keep parts of you from me. Your allegiance is not in question here. I know your intentions are pure and you genuinely mean what you say—that this is hurting you too. But I can’t fight this war with your mother and her heathens while also fighting a war in my heart. I was ignorant in Avolire and Tampa, and I don’t blame you for trying to keep your distance from me. I know I pushed you to cross that boundary you’d tried to enforce and I’m sorry for that. Now I’m paying the consequences. So while I’m by your side in this war . . . until you can let me in, let me see all of you, then I am not yours. And I’m gonna ask you to respect that boundary, since you’re so good at that. So, please leave my room⁠—”

“Francelina—”