Blaze lay awake in the dark, watching Rose sleep. Even exhaustion couldn’t drain the tension from her body. She huddled against him, one arm thrown over his waist, her face pressed into his side. Every now and then her fingers twitched, clutching at him as though to make sure he was still there.

He stroked her hair, sending gentle reassurance down the mate bond. “It’s all right,” he whispered. “Sleep, Rose. I’m here. You’re safe.”

It was a lie. She would never be safe.

Not while she was his mate.

A soft beeping noise made him start. A light on the hotel phone was flashing, next to a label saying Front Desk. Rose stirred fretfully, mumbling something.

“Shh,” he murmured, tightening his grip on her. “It’s nothing. Go back to sleep.”

Rose sighed, relaxing again. It took him a second to pull back his own fire to the point where he could pick up the phone without melting the handset. He fumbled with it, getting it the right way round on the second attempt.

“Mr. Blaze?” a voice said apologetically in his ear. “Sorry to disturb you, sir, but I have a call for you.”

He rubbed his aching eyes, trying to concentrate through the haze of exhaustion. “A call? For me?”

“Yes, sir. He asked for you by name. Would you like me to put him through?”

He suddenly felt cold, despite Rose’s warm body pressed against his. “Yes.”

A click.

“This is a demonstration,” said a familiar, icy voice.

Rose flinched in her sleep. He held very still, gripping his emotions tight to stop them from spilling down the mate bond.

“Corbin,” he said.

“You are at the Hilton at Sacramento Airport,” the warlock said, in the same factual, level tone. “Evidently booked in under your own name. You traveled there today at speeds which suggest a car or taxi rather than flight. Is that sufficient to convince you how closely that I can track you, or shall I continue?”

Blaze forced himself to breathe calmly and evenly. “Tell me my mate’s name and animal.”

The briefest of pauses. “Her identity is irrelevant. I can scry her easily, always, thanks to the bond you have foolishly forged with her. By linking your souls, you have sealed her fate.”

The tightness in his chest eased a little. Corbin still didn’t know who Rose was. It wasn’t much, given that the warlock could still find her by magical means, but at least they didn’t need to worry about more mundane methods.

“What do you want, Corbin?” Blaze asked.

“That should be self-evident. Your willing submission.”

“Never. You have no leverage. You lost the wendigo, your best weapon against me. You don’t even have the element of surprise. You won’t have another chance at my mate.”

“Still letting your beast think for you,” the warlock said. “Really, Blaze. Do you really think you can guard her every minute of every day? I can tell that she is sleeping at this very moment. I will know the instant that you surrender to exhaustion—careful, now. You’ll wake her, if you don’t control yourself.”

His fingers dug into the softening, scorching plastic of the phone handset. He clenched his teeth, pushing the fire back down.

“If you harm her,” he breathed, “if you touch her, I will destroy you. If it takes my entire life, I will obliterate you all.”

“Yes,” Corbin agreed, not sounding at all concerned. “And your mate would still be dead.”

“You’d be dead. This is a stand-off. You have just as much to lose.”

“Don’t tell me what I have left to lose,” Corbin snarled, his cultured manner dropping away to reveal the seething hatred beneath. “You have already taken everything from me. I did the impossible, I bound the Phoenix, I was a god. You cannot imagine what it is like, to hold such power only to have it ripped away. I want it back. I will have it back.”

Corbin fell silent. His breath rasped in Blaze’s ear.

“And if I cannot,” the warlock added, after a moment, in much more his usual measured, controlled tones, “then I will take everything from you. I will teach you what it means to be empty inside, to lose what you hold most dear. You cannot hide from me. You cannot run. No matter how long it takes, I will kill your mate.”

Rose struggled out of sleep, pulled by a persistent, nagging feeling of wrongness. She felt cold, despite the blanket carefully tucked round her. The space next to her on the bed was empty.

“Blaze?” she said, jerking upright.

She relaxed a little as his mind brushed against hers, soft and fleeting as a kiss on her forehead. Nonetheless, something felt…off. He wasn’t far away, yet his presence in her soul was dim and subdued, like a banked campfire.

“What’s wrong?” She sat up, glancing at the bedside clock. It was mid-morning. Golden light filtered through the closed curtains. “What are you doing?”

He didn’t pause in gathering up their few possessions. “Packing. I talked to the concierge. There’s a flight to London in a few hours. He helped me to book you a ticket on your card.”

“What?” Rose flung back the sheets, suddenly wide awake. “But we still haven’t worked out how to sneak you onboard the plane!”

He zipped up the suitcase, his back to her. She couldn’t see his face. “I’m not coming.”

She scrambled out of bed, glad that she’d been too tired to get undressed. She grabbed his arm, trying to pull him round to face her. He resisted, shoulders hunching, not looking at her. His muscles were like iron under her fingers.

“Blaze. Blaze.” She didn’t have a chance of moving him against his will. She ducked under his arm instead, popping up on the other side so that they were face to face. She lifted her chin, refusing to let him evade her glare. “What’s going on?”

For a moment he just looked at her, expressionless, mouth set in a flat, unreadable line. She reached for him down the mate bond, but she might as well have stretched up to try to catch the sun. She could still feel him, still see him, but she couldn’t touch him.

Then he let out his breath in a sigh. His arms closed around her, gathering her close. His head dropped to rest on hers.

“Corbin called,” he said into her hair. “He knows we’re here.”

“So?” His heartbeat thrummed through her body, rapid and agitated. She stroked his back, trying to calm him. “We already knew that he could track us.”

“He made threats. Against you. Rose, I have to hunt him down.” Blaze pulled back, hands on her shoulders, holding her at arm’s-length. “As long as he lives, you aren’t safe.”

“He was trying to scare you, Blaze. It’s just another trick to try to split us apart. He can’t touch us as long as we stay together.”

Blaze shook his head, his mouth twisting in agony. “I can’t protect you. Not by staying at your side. Rose, Corbin still doesn’t know who you are. If I…if I stop him from tracking you magically, he won’t be able to find you.”

Rose blinked. “You can do that?”

“I can. I worked out how, while you were sleeping.”

Blaze didn’t look like a man who’d found a way out of a trap. His expression reminded Rose of the people she’d seen fleeing the raging wildfires—numb, blank-eyed, clutching a few irreplaceable treasures tight in their arms. Abandoning everything, to save what they most loved.

She gripped his arms, hard, fingers digging into his taut muscles. “Blaze, what aren’t you telling me?”

His chest jerked with a spasmodic, painful catch. “It…it will hurt you. Terribly. But just for a moment.”

She couldn’t help flinching away from him. “Not my swan! Don’t take my swan!”

“No!” He looked horrified, as though it hadn’t even occurred to him that she might think he would burn her animal. “That would change you, who you are, your very nature. I could never do that.”

“Then what are you proposing to do?”

His eyes squeezed closed for a second, as if in pain. “I can’t explain it. There isn’t time, the taxi will arrive any minute to take you to the airport…please, Rose. This is the only way I can keep you safe. Trust me.”

Our mate, her swan whispered in her soul. He is our mate. We need to be with him.

But that was an animal’s instinct. She pushed her swan aside, forcing herself to consider the situation with human logic.

Blaze was right. The current situation was untenable. He’d been half-mad last night with guilt, and the warlocks had barely managed to touch her. If something worse did happen…it would destroy him.

She couldn’t be responsible for that. Couldn’t consign her mate to a life of paranoia and fear, always looking over his shoulder, always having to be on guard to protect her.

If they were ever to find true happiness, she had to let him go.

Nonetheless, Rose hesitated. “You said it would hurt.”

His fingertips traced the side of her face, soft as a feather. “Only for a second.” His mouth curved in a strange, wavering smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Then everything will be the way it was before. You won’t even remember it happened.”

“And afterward…when it’s all over, you’ll find me again? We’ll be together?”

He hesitated. “Rose, Corbin will still be able to track me. If I can’t find him, if I can’t eliminate the threat, you’ll be in danger if I’m with you.“

“I don’t care,” she said fiercely. “Promise me you’ll come back to me, no matter what. Promise me.”

He leaned his forehead against hers. “I promise,” he whispered, very softly.

She took a deep breath, setting her shoulders. She was so scared she was shaking, but this was Blaze, her mate. Her life, her heart, her soul.

For his sake, she could bear any pain.

“Okay,” she said, her throat dry. “Do it.”

Scrunching up her face, she braced herself for—she didn’t know what. Fire, flames, sweeping agony.

She wasn’t prepared for his mouth to press against hers, fierce and desperate. He kissed her with even more passionate intensity than he had during their mating, as if claiming her anew. All her fear and apprehension melted away in that irresistible heat. She leaned against him, pressing up into his mouth, certainty filling her as bright as the mate bond itself.

No matter what, she was his. He was hers. Forever.

His hands slid down from her face to her shoulders. Gradually, reluctantly, he pushed her away. Even as he stepped back, he bent to keep his lips on hers, lingering as long as possible.

When he finally released her, she wobbled. She had to brace herself on her suitcase to keep standing. Her lips felt hot and flushed, her mind reeled, her whole body tingled…but she didn’t feel any different.

He’d said she wouldn’t remember.

“Is it over?” she asked uncertainly.

Blaze had backed away as far as the door, never turning. He fumbled for the door handle, never taking his eyes off her. Every muscle in his body was strung tight, as though he was having to fight himself to stay where he was, to not stride back to her. Black flames burned in his eyes.

“I will always love you,” he said.

The door closed behind him.

No, no, no! cried her swan. Go after him, he needs us, he is our mate!

Rose forced herself to turn away from the door. Scrubbing her hand across her eyes, she made herself look at the paper he’d left on top of the suitcase. A printout of her flight times and itinerary. This time tomorrow, she’d be back in England.

Without him.

“Just for a little while,” she said out loud, to the empty room. “It’ll just be for a little while. He’ll come back. He promised.“

And then—

Her scream ripped the remnants of his soul into tattered shreds. Blaze slid down the closed door, fists clenched, biting his lip so hard that blood ran over his chin.

He had to hold back his own howl of agony. He couldn’t let her hear him, couldn’t let her know he was there.

She didn’t know he was still there.

She couldn’t feel him any more. She never would again.

But he could still feel her. The one thing he couldn’t burn was his own mind. Despite the smoking, blackened chasm between them, she was still his mate.

He knew the depth of her pain. Could sense her confusion, her terror. Could sense how she sank to the floor, clutching her head, fragments of scorched memories whirling through her mind like burning leaves.

“My mate, my mate, my mate!” Rose screamed, and he knew that she didn’t even remember his name.

She didn’t remember him at all.

It felt like every bone in his body was broken. He made himself stand anyway. Made himself walk away from the terrible sounds of his mate’s grief.

Even though she didn’t know who he was, she still wept for him.

But not forever. She would mourn the mate she’d never known, but eventually, she would move on. She would find happiness. She would heal.

He never would.

He’d burned the mate bond.

There was nothing left but ash.