Half inside the dark and half illuminated by the fire's glow — tall and still and built like something that had been made for war and had never found cause to pretend otherwise. His black skin absorbed the firelight rather than reflecting it. His brown eyes found hers the moment she stepped through.
He looked at her the way he had looked at her in every dream.
Like she was the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him.
Like he could not make himself look away.
Ella looked back at him with the calm focused attention she brought to everything that mattered.
Neither of them spoke for a long moment.
The purple fire moved between them in slow spiraling ribbons. The dark held them both. The space between them was smaller than it had been in any previous dream — closer, more rea
