***
After I gave him the same version I had told my aunt, Philip was deeply sympathetic. Like her, he raged at the idea that I had not brought the identities of my captors home so he could hunt them down himself.
The Sunsprings were an old, powerful bloodline, so wealthy and well-connected. Though Philip’s older brother, Dominus, was the tireless overseer of their enterprises, Philip had always been…I would not say lazy. Relaxed, perhaps. A little spoiled. But he was kind, loyal, and deeply caring, and that was the side of him I had come to cherish.
“Please stay,” he said later that evening, when I was preparing to leave. “I have missed you. Stay with me a little while longer, Bae.”
I wanted to. I really did. But I hesitated.
Philip did not know I only had less than a week before my r
