“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Adele pressed herself flat against Bron’s back and whispered in his ear.

He didn’t turn around to talk to her. Instead, he eyed the door of the crumbling building in front of them.

“Don’t worry,” he said.

“Don’t worry?”

Of course. What was she thinking? Just because they’d had to squeeze through holes in razor wire fences and sneak past dozens of signs warning they could be shot on sight for trespassing on Navy property. What could possibly go wrong?

“As long as I’m holding on to the sylph eye, no one can see us,” he said. “Besides, this place has been abandoned for years,” he said.

“Well, yeah,” she said. Everyone knew that the Navy had abandoned the massive Hunter’s Point Shipyard decades ago. That didn’t mean they were friendly to squatters. “That’s because this place is dangerous.”

Bron wrapped his hand around the rusted doorknob and gave it a quick, hard turn. The rusted lock cracked instantly, and the door swung open.

“It looks perfectly safe to me.” He lifted a hand and gave a hard pat to the side of the century-old brick building. A few pebbles and a little cloud of red dust shot out at the contact.

“I wasn’t talking about the architecture,” she said, rolling her eyes.

He stepped inside the building, and she followed close behind. She didn’t make it far, though. She had to stop just inside the door while her eyes adjusted from the bright morning sun to the much darker interior of the pump house.

Most of the tall arched windows that lined the walls were boarded up, and the few that weren’t were so dirty that barely any light filtered through. Of course, those were the ones that still had intact panes. Quite a few were missing entirely or had pebble-sized holes punched through the glass, allowing the few bright rays that pierced through the dust of the room to create spotlights on the concrete floor.

Of course, there wasn’t much in the room to illuminate—just a few brick firewalls that shot out from the sides, some discarded tools scattered around the floor, and a massive corroded machine embedded into the center of the floor.

Well, Bron certainly knew how to pick a dramatic location. She’d give him that.

Adele swallowed and stepped out of the shadows clinging to the walls. “You know they shuttered this whole shipyard because of contamination, don’t you?”

“That’s why we brought water,” he said.

She laced her fingers together and pulled her hands in tight. “I seem to remember reading something about radioactive soil.”

Bron shrugged the two duffle bags slung over his shoulders down onto the floor and walked over to her. He cupped his hands over her shoulders, gently rubbing her tension away.

“If your sailors could make it through thirty years of ship building out here, then we can survive a couple of nights,” he said.

“As in more than one?” Her brows pulled together. “I thought you said we needed to keep moving.”

“We do,” he said with a nod. “But not necessarily every day. This location is so remote and open, it will be easy to monitor. Camping here an extra night shouldn’t be a problem. And all this empty space makes it easy for us to disappear if someone does get too close.”

And when he said disappear, he literally meant disappear.

His reasons were sound, but she still couldn’t stop worrying.

“You’re sure?” she asked, her lips tight.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem the least bit annoyed by her need for reassurance. He gave her a kind smile and ran his hands down her arms.

“I am,” he said.

“Okay.” She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “It’s just hard to shake the feeling that we shouldn’t be here.”

“Oh, sweetness,” he said with a deep laugh. “You can’t let that bother you. I don’t belong anywhere in your world.”

“Does that mean you don’t like it here?” she asked.

“Not much of it.” An intense look crept into his eyes. “But I have to admit, the parts I do like are far more wonderful than anything I ever found in the Realm.”

* * *

The tightness gripped at the center of Bron’s chest again. This time, though, he knew exactly where it came from.

He’d never seen a woman as beautiful as the one staring up at him at this moment.

It wasn’t just her features, though those were stunning. Standing in sunlight, the diffused yellow beams bathing her face made the red tresses falling over her shoulders shimmer. Her skin glowed. Even her big blue eyes shone brighter than ever.

But it was the look in those eyes that held him fast.

She looked at him with a mixture of modesty and delight that made him ache to pull her close and never let her go. She knew he was talking about her. There was no doubt. A self-conscious blush lit her cheeks, but this time it was different.

This time, she didn’t try to dip her head and hide her emotions from him. She met his gaze head-on and didn’t so much as blink.

But she also didn’t reach out to him. All she did was flash a smile that shot through him like an arrow. Strange tingles spread throughout his body, from the top of his crown to the tips of his toes.

Odd, he’d never felt that before. Truth be told, he’d never felt much of anything about something as simple as an expression.

It was all more proof that there was something undeniably special about Adele Grayson. Something rare. Something precious.

The tingles didn’t fade even when a moment later, Adele turned and walked toward the bags.

“Tell me about it,” she said, sitting down cross-legged on the floor.

“The Realm, you mean?” he asked.

She nodded.

“It’s very different.”

“I figured that much out on my own,” she said with a laugh. “Tell me more.”

He moved toward her and kneeled down by her side. “What exactly do you want to know?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Are there cities?”

He nodded. “Yes, but they’re nothing like this.”

“So, what are they like?”

“Different,” he said. “Smaller.”

She made a show of rolling her eyes. “I don’t know why I bothered.” She pulled one of the duffel bags into her lap, unzipped it, and pulled out a blanket.

Bron pressed his lips together. His lack of poetic words disappointed her. They usually weren’t in his nature, but for her he was willing to try.

“All right,” he said. “There are only a few towns large enough for you to consider a city. The buildings aren’t as tall as your skyscrapers, but they’re built from a special white stone that glistens in the light. The streets are always clean and quiet.”

She looked up from the bag. “It sounds beautiful.”

“It does sound that way,” he conceded. “But looks can be deceiving. The ruling fae consider the cities refuges from us ‘lesser beings’ of the Realm. Only they are allowed to own property there, and most of them don’t welcome guests or strangers.”

“My God,” she said. “They sound like total assholes.”

Bron let out a laugh. He’d never heard the truth stated so plainly before. “Indeed.”

“So, where did you live?” she asked.

“In the royal palace,” he said. “Near the queen.”

Adele’s smile stiffened. He wanted to reach out and touch her face, to tell her that Titania’s beauty was cold, heartless. Nothing that could compare to Adele’s warmth and light, but after yesterday’s scolding he couldn’t be certain that was what she wanted to hear.

But it was true. Somehow, this mortal woman outshined the Realm’s brightest star in every way.

“And were you happy there?” she asked.

Bron pursed his lips. No one had ever asked him that question before. His position as the queen’s huntsman was prestigious. It put him at the top of his field. It was what he’d worked for his whole life.

But happiness? That wasn’t something he ever thought about.

Until now.

“I don’t think I was,” he said, surprised the answer came so easily. “It was very different from the place I grew up.”

“What was that like?” she asked.

“A small village at the edge of the forest.” A smile lifted his lips as he said the words. The image of his childhood home came rushing back to him— the small cottages dotting the tree line, the dark tendrils of smoke rising up from the stone chimneys, the well-worn trails that ran through the thicket. “That was where I learned how to hunt.”

Adele smiled right back up at him. “Sounds like you were happy there.”

“There are some fond memories,” he admitted. “Some bad ones as well.”

“Wouldn’t be a real childhood if there weren’t,” she said with a slow nod. “But how long ago was this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Snow White was first published a couple of hundred years ago, but the story has to be older than that,” she said. “And you’re what, thirty? Thirty-five, max?”

A smile tugged at his lips. “I’m a lot older than that.”

“How old?” she asked, a deep wrinkle creasing the skin between her eyes.

“It’s hard to say,” he said. “Things are different in the Realm.”

“Even time?”

“Especially time,” he said with a nod. “Also, aging…and death.”

“But you said you were just human, like me.”

“True. I am a man,” he said. “But not a mortal one. At least, I wasn’t.”

“Wait.” She threw up her hands and leaned in closer over her lap. “You aren’t making any sense.”

“I know it’s confusing,” he said, his smile spreading wider at her exasperation. “But that’s how things are in my world. Nothing is as definite as it is here. But if I had to guess, I would say I’m about five hundred years old.”

“Damn.” Her jaw fell open. “You look really good for an old man.”

He laughed.

“Where I come from that’s not old,” he said. “Both Merlin and Shay, the jinn, have both been alive for millennia. Then there are the truly ancient creatures that can be found in the Underworld.”

“But none of you age?”

“Not in the Realm,” he said. “There, you grow until the pinnacle of maturity.”

“And then what?” She arched her brows, clearly waiting for more. “You just stop? No one dies of old age?”

“That’s something that only exists here on Earth,” he said. “That’s why exile to your world is so feared. Here, everything withers. Here, there’s no escaping death.”

Adele pressed her lips together in a hard, flat line. She reached out and slapped his shoulder playfully.

“Oh, now you’re just being dramatic,” she said. “It’s not all bad. We have some pretty amazing things here.”

He looked into her eyes. “There’s no denying that.”

The blush rushed back to her cheeks. She shook her head, obviously dismissing his words as play. How wrong she was.

“And from what you’ve told me, the Realm isn’t all hearts and roses.”

“That’s true,” he said. In a land without limits, nothing was sacred. “Death might be rare but it’s always violent. Births are few and far between. Family isn’t considered the blessing it is here.”

“That sounds lonely,” she said. The teasing look fell from her eyes. She reached out and caressed his arm, comforting him the way he’d comforted her just minutes ago.

He shrugged.

Lonely? Yet another emotion he’d never dwelled on…until now. Until he thought of returning to the Realm and leaving Adele here on Earth.

Unless…

Unless she was the one he fell in love with. Unless she fell in love with him. Then she could return with him, and they could live together.

A strange sliver of hope embedded deep into Bron’s heart, stinging as much as it soothed. He wasn’t sure whether giving himself over to hope was the right choice. After all, they were so different.

But if there was one thing he had learned from the books he’d read yesterday, it was that love often grew between two mismatched people. Their differences filled in their gaps. Made them better people. Brought them closer.

Was that possible? Or just another fiction? He couldn’t be sure.

The strange thing was he’d never understood Titania’s desire for love until he had Adele by his side. He’d never wanted anyone more.

And yet, somehow, the emotion didn’t feel selfish. He didn’t want to be adored as much as he wanted the chance to adore her. He didn’t want pleasure as much as he wanted to please her. He didn’t want to be happy half as much as he wanted to see happiness shining in her eyes…the way compassion was shining in them now.

“It can’t be all bad,” she said, “or else you guys wouldn’t be trying so hard to get back.”

“There are some places in the Realm that are more beautiful than anything you can imagine,” he admitted.

“Like the village where you grew up?”

“Exactly.”

“Is that where you’re going to go when you get back?” she asked. “Since I’m guessing you won’t be getting your old room at the palace.”

He shook his head. There was another place in mind.

“There’s a spot I’ve been thinking about in the Western Woods,” he said. “It’s not much, just a good-sized clearing surrounded by a canopy of trees, but there’s a small river filled with fish and enough game in the woods to never have to worry about going hungry.”

“That’s where you’re going to set up camp?” she asked.

“That’s where I’m going to build my home,” he said.

A wide smile spread across Adele’s face, crinkling the corners of her eyes. “It sounds lovely. When all of this is over, I hope I have the chance to come and visit.”

“I’d like that.” Truth was, he was hoping for a lot more than that. “But before that can happen I need to finish setting us up here.”

Bron pushed off the floor. He grabbed his blanket and unrolled it on the floor, dropping the bag of clothes at one end as a makeshift pillow.

The dirty floor wasn’t a cozy home in the Western Woods, but it would do.

He turned around, ready to do the same for Adele. “Where would you like your bed?” he asked.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if I slept next to you again,” she said, her voice suddenly small and timid.

The sliver of hope in his heart dug itself in a little deeper.

“No, sweetness,” he said. “I don’t mind at all.”