I wrinkled my nose then stuck my tongue out at him playfully. “Well, I’m glad I put your hypothetical doubt to rest. Now where are we?”

He spun me around and my breath caught in my throat. It was Rapunzel’s tower from the movie Tangled. Not literally, of course, but I wondered if the people who animated that film had been here because it was damn near identical. Those towering cliff walls surrounded us in a circle, standing so tall it was impossible to see anything else beyond it aside from the cloudless blue sky. It was a perfect, glorious oasis. At the opposite side from where we stood, a narrow waterfall dropped from the top of the cliff into a pretty little river that snaked around the oasis and hopefully led to a lake or small pool. There was lush green grass that covered flat land and some hills. Massive oak trees with low hanging branches and moss dangling toward the ground were mixed in among the lavender wisteria trees and pale pink cherry blossoms.

All I could do was stare.

It was the most beautiful, magical oasis I had ever seen.

I had the sudden urge to protect it from the rest of the world with violence.

“There is violence in your aura, my love.”

“Yeah, I will hurt anyone who dares to even think of harming this place.”

He chuckled.

I looked up at that smile on his face and wanted to cry. His eyes were broken and haunted yet when he laughed it was like the pain was totally chased away. I took his hand in mine. “What is this place?”

He took a deep breath then let it out. His eyes locked on the oasis in front of us. “Home.”

I frowned and glanced around. “This is your home?”

“This is . . . our home,” he whispered.

I gasped. “What? What do you mean? Everest?”

“Do you see the tower? At the base of the tower is a cottage.” He pointed to where a narrow tower stood up above the pink and purple of the trees. “This oasis was a wedding gift from your mother and her sisters. A secret garden tucked away from the world where we could be safe to be together without mother finding us.”

Tears filled my eyes. My throat got tight and warm. “This . . . this was our home? Together?”

He was staring at it the same way he stared at me when I first arrived at this cove. “You gave birth to Auryn here. We raised her here—” his voice broke— “For three centuries, this was our home.”