Ivy made herself wait until they’d walked a little way up the street, away from prying ears. Hugh didn’t have shifter hearing any more, but his friends’ senses were as acute as ever. She didn’t want any of them overhearing this conversation. They might tell Hugh…and then he would do everything in his power to convince her not to go through with this.

But she had to. It was their only remaining option.

Steeling her nerve, she turned to Ash.

“You have to burn away my wyvern,” she said.

The Phoenix looked at her with those dark, ageless eyes. His face was never exactly expressive, but now it turned as blank and forbidding as a fortress. Her wyvern cringed at the sense of a much greater power looming over them.

“You have asked this of me before,” he said. “The answer is still the same. No.”

“Things are different now.” It took all of Ivy’s strength to stand her ground. “You have to. For Hugh’s sake. I have to be able to touch him.”

“I sympathize with your predicament,” Ash said. Despite his expressionless face, Ivy had an odd certainty that he genuinely did. “I understand all too well what it is to be so close and yet so far from one’s mate. But destroying your wyvern would not help Hugh.”

“You don’t understand. He needs me—“

“Precisely,” Ash interrupted. “He needs you. Not a burned-out husk that looks like you. Ivy, our animals are intertwined through our souls. If I burned away your beast, you would no longer be Hugh’s mate.”

“But Hugh lost his unicorn, and he’s still my mate.”

“Yes.” Ash’s eyebrows drew down a little, his tone turning thoughtful. “That surprises me. When I take a shifter’s animal, the destruction is total, like burning a tree to the ground. Hugh…is more like a tree that has been split by lightning. The trunk may be shattered and hollow, but the roots are still strong. The leaves will grow again.”

Ivy’s breath caught. “Are you saying his unicorn is still there?”

Ash shook his head, killing her tiny seed of hope. “No. I have no sense of his animal. But Hugh is still there. He is still the same person. Ivy, if I took your wyvern, you would not be the same person as you are now. You might be content, because you would not know that you had ever been otherwise, but Hugh would know. It would be the worst thing either of us could do to him.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Ivy said bleakly. “I met Hugh’s father. He lost his unicorn too. He told me that ex-unicorns need sex to stay sane. But Hugh can’t touch me. And if, if he has to get what he needs elsewhere, I’ll go mad. I can’t bear to think of him with someone else.”

The Phoenix’s controlled expression cracked at last, revealing a hint of true, human pity. “It is bad enough to be unable to be with one’s mate. If someone else was with her…well. I am grateful beyond words that the situation has never arisen for me. But in any case, you do not need to fear that Hugh will be unfaithful. You are his true mate, as much as he is yours.”

“Then he’ll go mad. Hugh’s father tried to be abstinent, and he said it nearly killed him. He’s forced to do things he doesn’t want at all, just to cling onto sanity.”

Ash’s mouth tightened. “Hugh has one of the strongest wills I’ve ever encountered. He will not be forced into anything. Not even out of self-preservation.”

“Exactly! I’m so scared that he’ll destroy himself. Please, Ash. You have to take my wyvern. No matter what it does to me. Can’t you see that it’s better for Hugh to at least have some version of his mate rather than nothing at all?”

Ash drew in a deep breath through his nose, and let it out again, slowly. “No. It is not. I will not burn your wyvern.”

“I’ll make you do it,” Ivy vowed, meaning it with all her heart. “I know you sometimes punish criminals by taking their animals. I’ll, I’ll burn down a house. I’ll burn down your house.”

“I do not have a house,” Ash murmured. “And please refrain from burning down my fire station. It would be immensely embarrassing if you succeeded.”

Ash rubbed his forehead, suddenly looking old and tired. He usually projected such an aura of calm that he seemed as eternal as a mountain, but for the first time Ivy noticed the silver streaked through his brown hair and the weathered lines around his eyes. She wondered just how old the Phoenix actually was.

“You are a very determined young woman,” he said, dropping his hand again. “As strong-willed as Hugh, in fact. If I do not assist you, then I have no doubt you will devise some even worse solution.”

Ivy’s heart thumped against your ribs. “So you’ll do it?”

“I will not burn your wyvern. I cannot do that to either Hugh or yourself. But there is another way I could free you both from this trap. I swore I would never do it again, but…I can see no other way out.” His jaw clenched for a moment. “Though I will only do it if Hugh agrees to it as well. If I do this, it must be completely, not just to one of you. That mistake, I will not repeat.”

“I’ll persuade him,” Ivy said, though she had no idea how. “If it’s the only way for us to be together, I’ll have to persuade him.”

“It is not a way for you to be together.” Ash’s fathomless eyes were strangely human for once, the fiery power in them overshadowed by some old, deep pain. “It is a way for you to be able to be apart. Ivy, if you both wish it…I can burn the connection between you, your love, your very memories of each other. You would no longer be each other's true mate.”