a said. "Just

or a blow he'd been expecting for three hundred years. When he finally turned around, whatever composure he'd been

" he admitted. "I've tried, in my h

any

ainted woman stared back at both of them. The lamp light caught the old

looked

omething he has rehearsed a thousand times and never once belie

That painting is thr

old it is. I was the

standing at the edge of something too large to process. "

fused, and to think I'm either insane or lying to you." He watched her steadil

t happene

final, like a door closing on a room he wa

ow

ton

ling around the truth since the funeral, giving me pieces just big enough to keep me follo

u alive long enough to

t protecting. Mayb

d retreated at all. Adrian didn't touch her, not at first, he simply stood close enough that she had to tip her head back to hold

for a woman I loved and lost, and three days ago I found her wearing your face and your voice

d his fingers brushed along her jaw the same way they had against the mark on her col

ria

ove away. "I know thi

and he stepped back immediately, hands raised, giving her the space she'd asked

w. "Whatever you think you're seeing

ing underneath it that didn't sound entirely convinced, so

like you

u're Elena. Whatever I owe her, whatever I still carry for her, none of it chan

ing from a man who's spent three cen

he said. "I'm asking y

behind th

e from inside the room, and Adrian was in front of her before she'd finished flinching, already scanning the dark be

the wards," he sa

Testing

them." His hand found her wrist, steady, pullin

ld me who did this to

ely carried over the sound of the alarm beginning to sound through the buildi

aid. "And she has wanted you