Chapter 40

She’d forgotten so much of that in the intervening months, but, watching his reaction, it came back in full flood. It surged up in her even more strongly when he finally spoke, his husky tone taking her breath.

“What’s her name?”

“I wanted to call her Wolfi. Because she was perfect, just like a rose. ”

He swallowed, his voice thickening. “Ruby and Wolfi. My girls. ”

She was crying now, too, silent tears coursing down her cheeks as one meager but powerful teardrop made its way down his. Lifting her fingers, she took it away, a treasure so full of power that it was as much magic as what she’d spun in here. When he looked down at her, something shifted inside her. Something painful, like a boulder rolling off a vital organ, letting it function for the first time in a long while, difficult and rusty though she might be at using the squashed thing. She couldn’t deny the Dark part of her was still on maximum-security lockdown, but for this she couldn’t keep the regret and pain out of her vo