An exhale trembled from him and heated my lips.

He studied me as my smile bloomed and I let the tears gather in my eyes. “I was supposed to love you, and I do,” I said, for there was no denying that he’d crawled inside my heart long ago. “I do love you.”

He’d crawled inside it to plant a seed he’d watered and nurtured with every moment spent with him. With every knowing touch, every soul-healing action, and every honest word, I was gifted safety unlike any other, and a desire to believe when I’d lost the ability to.

I had been gifted a love that wanted only to love me in return.

I laughed when Scythe grabbed and hauled me into his lap.

He silenced me with his mouth, clutching my cheek as he kissed me with a ruthlessness that spoke of undeniable relief. He pulled away long enough to stare at me, as though checking I was real and that he finally had me in every way he’d wished for.

I stroked his cheek, smiling, and he kissed a tear from mine before fusing our lips once again.

Searing moments later, he murmured, “My turn to show you something.” The large hand palming my ass beneath my robe squeezed.

I wanted him inside me, all over me, but we both knew it was unwise to do so here. For although we were alone, we wouldn’t be for long. Rorn knew of most places to search for me.

Together, we rose and warped farther inland.

We materialized by a large dam, spotted with reeds and lily pads. Beyond it stood a generous wood and stone structure, smoke rising from its chimney. Hedges, well-tended and riddled with roses, surrounded the home. Wooden fencing stretched for miles either side of it, encaging livestock.

A small farm.

I looked up at Scythe. “Yours?”

He was staring at it, his expression clean of emotion. I still saw it, had come to notice his tells after obsessing over his features, both in person and on parchment with paint. His jaw rocked ever so slightly. His eye was squinted—just enough to know there was effort given to keep from showing what he felt.

“You don’t have to do that,” I said, squeezing his hand. “Not with me.”

“Hard to shake,” he said, bringing my hand to his mouth. His gaze stayed fixed on his old home. “The last time I didn’t need to watch every move I made was when I lived right here.”

My heart splintered at the thought of him spending all these years within the walls he’d built to protect himself. Berk and Mariana, his found family, had likely spent many of those years trying to see past them, and although he’d let them in more than the rest of the world, he still held even them at a distance.