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He felt her body convulse on a silent sob For years his sife had suffered Grieved He hadn’t been able to do anything to fix it, so he’d learned to live with her constant sadness and silent rage until he accepted it as norh She used to tease him and smile and play

She hadn’t been normal since Maura had run away and joined forces with the Synestryn

"It’s not too late," he assured her, forcing his conviction through their shrinking link

"I’ve done things, Angus Unforgivable things"

His grip on her tightened She was still cold, so he eased her down into the hot water, settling her against his chest His lifemark still loved her touch, and it shivered toward her as if it had been starved of that touch for way too long

"What you did to Sibyl and Maura was understandable Our son had died You were grieving Distraught" And because of what Gilda had done, his girls would never grow up As hters would follow his exa about," she said "There are things about er I can live with these secrets They’re eating us was careful to hide his shock He thought he knew everything about his wife, but perhaps he’d been wrong "Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad"

"It is I’ve taken soabout, love? The only thing you’ve taken from me is your touch We’re past that now, aren’t we?" He hoped so He hoped that her letting hin her stubbornness was at an end Finally

"Once I tell you, you won’t want to touch us tilted her body, hooked his thumb under her chin, and turned her head so she would look at hih to forgive"

Her dark eyes glittered with tears "You’re wrong, Angus"

"Tell me Tell me what you’ve done that’s so bad, because I think you’re wrong"

A single tear spilled over, and the sadness he saw in her face nearly made him weep "I’ve tried to live without you these last seven ht the distance between us would us tried to reach through their link and see as going on in her head, but he couldn’t get through All he could feel was her barely constrained panic and a sense of grief so thick he didn’t kno she could stand it

She looked down in shaest son He’d died in battle, along with three other Theronai But that had been so long ago Two centuries As e swelling of pride for what he’d done that night--for the rown to become and the countless lives he’d saved He’d sacrificed his life, but it hadn’t been in vain The descendants of the hu the world a better place

Angus caressed her aro I already know Whatever it is you think you did, I’ve already forgiven you"

"No You’re wrong I’ve hidden it So carefully, so deep, I know you’ve never seen ive you and you can heal Let’s get past this The lives of our people depend on our strength, our exa"

"Tellyou could do so bad I would stop loving you"

She fell silent Pulled in a breath Her body shuddered, as if uttering the words after holding theht Isaac died, I was destroyed I knew the ain I couldn’t bear the pain, and knew I couldn’t allow it to happen again I couldn’t lose another child"

Angus reet Their link had intensified their pain, as they each not only suffered their own grief, but the other’s as well Rather than cling to him for support, as he’d ached for her to do, she’d fled--run into the hills and shut down When she came back, she was colder Harder

"I went into the woods," she said "I gathered asit would kill ed at the unfairness of our son’s death Why hadn’t it been me that had died instead of hiiven soson, too?"

Angus had no answers He sat in silence, giving her tie to say whatever it was she had to say

"The power in rier I knew I couldn’t ever again allow another child of ive any more ofwith shaic to do what it did I hadn’t planned any of this, or had a single conscious thought as to what it e that it went out of control The power ripped fro out fro I could see the trees shake as it passed"

"What us "What had you done?"

"For years our people have believed that ourthe Synestryn did to us I’ve let them believe it, but it’s a lie" She pulled in a deep breath "I did it, not our eneic spread out over the face of the planet, rendering every male Theronai sterile, because only then could I be sure I’d never conceive"

Shock choked the breath frous’s body "You did that to us? To me?"