Abraxas appeared next to her as if he had been there all along and she had simply not been looking hard enough. He wore a long black coat, a brimmed hat, and a narrowly fitted jacket and trousers of deep midnight blue. His teeth flashed white against ink-dark skin.

“Celeste.” He said her name like a prayer. Hushed, intimate, like she was something sacred. He leaned in close, and his lips brushed against her neck just below her ear. “Have you finally returned to me?”

She swallowed hard, fighting the desire that flooded her body. He smelled of rosewood and amber. If she closed her eyes, she could remember the taste of his mouth, cardamom and sin, and the rough heat of his hands as he unbuttoned her dress, palms sliding down her naked back.

It took all her willpower, but she stepped away, putting space between their bodies.

“I’ve only come to talk, Abraxas.”

“Talk.” He lingered over the word, lingered over her, his gaze appreciative. “What a pity.”

She flushed, heat running up her neck and face. “It wasn’t my idea to come to you. You should know that.”

“Hypatia told me,” he acknowledged, pacing around her like a giant cat evaluating his prey. “And yet here you are.”

“Yes.” She met his gaze, unflinching. He was long and lean, cut like a sliver of darkness had loosed itself from the night and formed into a man. Perfect and beautiful and dangerous. She shoved her trembling hands into her pockets and steadied her voice. “But there are rules, Abraxas.”

A smile edged his mouth. “Rules? I did not agree to rules.”

“I need rules, or I will not stay.”

“Even for Mariel’s sake?”

Her stomach dropped. He knew her too well. If this was how he wished to play, she was already damned. “This was a mistake.” She turned to flee while she still could.

“Celeste. Wait.” And now his voice was ordinary, or at least as ordinary as Abraxas could be. His words no longer brushed against her skin like silk, no longer conjured memories of seduction. “I will abide your rules. I would not have told Hypatia to send you if I did not mean to help. But forgive me if seeing you again…” He exhaled. “It is not easy for me.”

“This is not easy for me, either.”

“You are the one who left me,” he said, incredulous.

“Because you would have forced me to choose between you and Mariel. Because loving you meant losing my soul!” She matched his skepticism with a rising anger.

“Time passes, and the flesh fades. Forgive me for loving you so much that I wanted us to be together forever.”

“By taking my soul?” she shouted in disbelief.

He growled incoherently and threw up his hands in frustration. She folded her arms across her chest, fighting the tightness around her heart. And there they were, back behind their battle lines.