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But how?

"We can’t outrun Styx’s guards, not while ed to blurt out

"Once we’re out of the tunnels your ic will return"

"Maybe or maybe not" She shuddered as his hand continued to soothe her tense h for ether "Never"

"Once I’h away I’ll contact you and you can join me"

"No"

"Roke," she protested his stubborn refusal to obey

Obviously her spell was rapidly losing its grip on hi second

"I won’t leave you," he said grierous"

"I’ll be fine"

"Yes, because I’ll be with you"

Suddenly it was all toodown until her butt hit the dirt floor "I’ht"

Roke squatted in front of her, his expression concerned "Rest here I’ll make sure the path is clear"

"Roke"

"Close your eyes, little witch," he er over her chilled cheek "I’ll keep you safe"

If only that were true, she thought with a twinge of wistful longing

If only this man did want to keep her safe

Not because of so

"You’re so stupid, Sally," she whispered as he pressed his hands against the floor and with one ih the opening above "Stupid and downright pathetic You’re going to end up dead in this tunnel and no one is going to give a dah the empty house It was obviously one of Styx’s nuencies

As he had told Sally, the Anasso was nothing if not thorough

Sally

Roke came to a halt in the middle of the never-used kitchen What the hell? With a sharp shake of his head he felt the urgent, driving need to rescue the beautiful witch fro lifted fros lengthening

He vividly reeons with a dinner tray He’d entered the cell and tried to convince Sally to confess the truth of Gaius’s strange new talents

And then

And then he’d been overwhelmed by a potent desire to do whatever was necessary to protect the wo

Goddammit

The bitch had hit him with a spell

There could be no other explanation

Why else would he have suddenly been filled with an unshakable conviction she was his? Not just a pretty female he desired But his On a most primitive level

Hell, even now he couldfeel her As if their very souls were entwined

And worse, she had forced hi, even loyalty to his people, to keep her safe

Of all things, that was the one act he could never, ever forgive or forget

He’d taken a vohen he became clan chief that he would always put his people first How could he offer the less? The previous chief had nearly destroyed them all by his obsession with a female who’d demanded he pamper her every whim

Now he’d been forced to follow in the footsteps of theto pay for that

With a roar that shattered the nearby , he returned to the back bedroo into the lower tunnel, he landed lightly on the balls of his feet and stormed toward the female as deeply asleep, curled on her side on the floor