“I waited a lifetime for you, my mate. Don’t ever leave me again.”
“I won’t,” she said, pushing her chin into his palm, eyes closed. “Never again.”
Modi’s pain came slower to us than Magni’s. He was hesitant, but he didn’t fight it in the end. There was such shame in his relationship to his family—in his love for a mother who had hated his brother, and his worship of a father who might not have deserved it.
But the deepest scar for Modi was still fresh and pink and smarting at the edges. He hadn’t thought Annabel loved him—still found it hard to truly believe, even though he himself had fully surrendered to the Fate that had been woven for him. He saw himself as an outsider in our little group—someone expendable.
Annabel’s essence flared as that particular thought filtered through. Fur
