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How are we to live, ht between us poised, a sword,

forged and edged in

I cannot leave you,

this bond too strong

Thus I go on as I have before,

burning in Eden, with you,

evermore

A bound journal lay next to the co on herto find some happier sentiment Inside he found it dated by the year, and filled with a series of sketches Jayr had drawn hile, detailed with startling accuracy Soe into the face of a proud, handsoe

He flipped through the pages, and where there were not sketches his name appeared repeatedly written with flourishes and scrolls, as if it were precious to her He looked up on the shelf above the co row of other journals stood He took one down at rando before a fire In the guards’ hall Standing on the battlements He took down another, and then another His face and fore, his name the only words recorded The journals spanned the last twenty-five years

Slowly he put back everything as she had left it She loved hier than he had ever suspected No one could pay such a tribute out of liking or admiration No, Jayr had suffered with her love, had endured it in silence, aching and burning with it, hiding all when she ith hi to her lonely chamber to draw his face over and over, year after year, as if he were the only thing of importance in her world

How could he ever be worthy of her? Love her as she deserved to be loved?

Byrne went to stand over her bed The long, loose tunic in which she slept looked worn It had been er than her, and that puzzled hinized it as one of his own that he had discarded

Even in her sleep she wrapped herself up in hiretted that he had no poetry, no soft words to give to her All he kneas the need to be one with her, to fill her as she filled his heart

As he watched her he began absently unfastening his own tunic The soft sounds of his clothes dropping to the floor stirred her to turn over

"Aedan," she murmured, still asleep

Byrne knew he should wake her, talk to her, explain what he had done and ask why she had never told him Instead he pulled back the covers and slipped into her bed, taking her into his ar her froh hiid spike Before he could think he had eased her left thigh over his right leg His hand cupped her, and some part of him felt onder the soft, downy new hair that abraded his palht slit

"Aedan," sherelief

Byrne felt an unfaed up his old tunic Two s for his ht and painful, as blood and need engorged hi as they touched and her cool, sweet honey spread over him

Jayr’s eyes opened, first to slits, then wide "Aedan" She braced her hands against his chest as if to push hihast "What has happened to me?"

"I cannae say, lass" He bent and brushed his mouth over her nipple "But ’tis beautiful"

"Alexandra’s potion worked She’s aze "Why are you here? You don’t want e boiled inside hiless, pointless All of the longing and denying and watching and wishing and never knowing, never suspecting for a moment that she loved him, and had kept that love from him

"I dinnae want you?" Byrne shoved hile stroke "I dinnae love you? You ht all this time?"

Her nails sank into his flesh "My lord--"