Chapter 35

You used a soul spell on me. You told me to stay out of your life. When I figured out the damn spell, I did look for you, kept looking for you, but I had to keep doing my job. ”

“And it was your job that finally brought you back to me. This. ” She made a vague gesture toward the circle.

“I had to have a reason to pull you back into my life. If I’d showed up and said, ‘Hey, Ella, I just want to take up where we left off, even though you seemed kinda pissed the last time I saw you,’ how would that have worked?”

He was right, but he was also wrong, the same way she was both right and wrong. She struggled with her wildly vacillating emotions, which seemed as hard to pin down as the range of his emotions over the past few minutes. “You acted like you hated me, back in the cottage. But then you come out here and knock him around. What was that, marking territory? I can’t stand the bitch, but she’s my bitch?”

“Ella. ” He caught her shoulders, hauled her up to her toes. “Stop it. Love and hat