Chapter Thirty-eight

"Aurora," Evander says softly. "I've missed you."

I look at him, my mouth agape. My emotions are a wreck, a tumultuous cyclone trapped within my chest.

I meet his gaze and read a mixture of longing and regret deep in his eyes.

"Not one day has gone by that I have not thought of you," he says, taking a step closer to me. His voice is tender, sincere. "That is what I wanted to tell you by the lakeside. When you left, you took a piece of me with you."

"When I 'left?'" I ask incredulously. "Is that what we're calling rejection and banishment now? Leaving?"

His audacity irks me. I miss you, he says. I think of you, he says. I, I, I – every sentence revolves around him.

And never once has he even attempted to say that he's sorry.

"I need to go," I say before he can whisper more sweet nothingness in my ear.

"Stay," he says. It's both a command and an invitation, cajoling and authoritative, and my body responds.

Just like he knew it would.

"I feel it too," he tells me, even coming closer. "Ev