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Wasn’t it enough?

The answer cut him to the bone because no, it was not.

Parts of him were still tethered to the earth—to her.

He felt the knot around his ribs every minute of every hour of every day. It would tighten to the point of pain, stretching until he thought it would snap.

He watched her decorate alone in her apartment, three sad ornaments on her tree.

He watched her write his name on a frost-bitten window and felt his own soul rise in answer.

He watched her cry herself to sleep, get up each day and make an effort to step back into her life. Pride and agony warred side by side for first place in his heart.

And worse—he missed her.

He thought he left his mortal aches and pains back on earth, but they came with him. He missed her until it began to rot something within him.

Patty was the only one who tried to understand.

Wolfe had the energy to tell him all of it just once—the way that Avery had shed such a light upon him, made him real and whole when the rest of the world was content to forget him. They’d found something together in Kilmorran. Something that could not be unwritten or forgotten.

They urged him to walk away from the mirror, to allow himself to live in the peace he had more than earned.

He tried.

He made it all of three days before the panic consumed him and he rushed back, only able to breathe when he saw her through the clouds.

That was where the voice found him. It was ancient, that voice. Powerful, terrifying, not male or female but a blend of sounds all at once.

What is it you want, Royan Wolfe?

“Her,” he said, never tearing his eyes from the mirror. “I want to go home.”

Is this not your home?

“I thought it was. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have left. I should have found a way to stay.”

Your soul was ready.

“No,” he bit out. “It was not. I thought—being here—I thought this would be my rest. My slumber. I cannot.”

In time, you will.

“There is no amount of time that could ever pass where I would not miss her. Where I would not ache to be beside her. You’re wrong.”

A beat of silence.

And what would you do, Royan Wolfe, to return?

Slowly, he turned his head. There was only light at the door, shining like sunlight on the ocean.

“Anything. Whatever it took.”

Are you sure? It cannot be undone. It all comes with a price. You would leave the family you have always longed to join.

Wolfe climbed to his feet. “She’s my family, too. I know where I belong and it’s not—it’s not here.”

You always were stubborn. Amusement laced the words. One last time, Royan Wolfe. Are you certain?