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"Someone has to stop Elizabeth, and there’s no one else"

"Which is why you need to relax soe" He kissed her forehead, then her cheek "Tonight--okay, you made ascene, but it sounds like it’s going to blow over"

Nadia’s dark eyes gazed up into his, still so hesitant, so doubtful, that his heart ached to see it Why did she keep taking the weight of the world onto herself, until she nearly broke under it?

"It’s not just that," she whispered "Every ti else I don’t know, it reminds me that I lost my teacher"

She said no more; she didn’t have to He knew her only teacher in witchcraft was her ht Nadia was coping reasonably ith her mother’s abandonment of the family He’d slowly learned that wasn’t true In so with it

"I’e it for you if I could"

"I know" She wound her arht their ether in a kiss Mateo opened his lips, kissed her deeper, breathed in the scent of her skin

They’d had so little tione back to her house--

Her mouth under his, her body next to his Their skin smelled like woods her body shake with emotion and exhaustion "I love you," said and heard, over and over until their voices ether in her bed, still clothed and too tired for ether, co--

But that certainty had been an illusion

Since then, they’d had to take care of Verlaine, deal with Elizabeth, confront the new demon in theirto tear Nadia away from him almost as soon as he’d found her

But there was no way he was going to let that happen

Mateo slipped his hands beneath the heers against warainst his throat that did soo war together in their e hard, but he had to shed, a little self-conscious--but he saw that flush in her cheeks "You kno ht?"

"Maybe as much as I love you But maybe not Because I’m not sure that’s even possible"