Chapter 69

Declan:

Declan watched Cassidy sleep. She was up all day, turning the house upside down looking for him. After the way he had left, he didn’t blame her. She sometimes forgot that it was nearly impossible for him to die, and that which could kill her, couldn’t kill him. She thought he had crawled off to die somewhere alone, like a sick dog.

The relief when she saw him alive was such that she cried for hours while he held her. He had never seen her so upset, and he suspected as the war went on he would see more of it – her sunny, joyful exterior was nothing but a thin veneer for the deep fear she must have felt every waking moment.

Once, he reached out to feel how Aster was coping…she was extremely frustrated, which he expected – learning how to use her gifts wasn’t going to be easy. Then he blocked her out again.

He honestly thought he’d be ecstatic when she woke up, and for a split second when she said his name again after seven years