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I laughed at my callificar. “You do know, Knight Corliss, that it is possible to have a child without ever being married?”

His eyes widened, and his cheeks flushed pink. “I… um… er.”

I stared down at our joined hands. “You were not the only one that couldn’t love me back because I was a mage.”

“I always loved you,” he blurted. “I just didn’t know what to do about it.”

Knight Corliss found me after I tucked my son into bed. “I have a library here. Very therapeutic.”

I couldn’t stop my smile.

He thumbed over my fingers, noticing the lack of wedding ring. “Where is your husband?”

“I don’t have one.”

He clasped my hand between both of his. “I am sorry for your loss.”

He had rooms arranged for us and saw that were taken care of before turning back to his work.

I watched.

He ran the care facility with the efficiency of the callificars, but beneath it was the vein of compassion that had made me fall in love with him so many years ago.

I had been little more than a child.

I ruffled my son’s hair.

So many things had changed.

Too many.

“I never left,” I whispered, my words shaking. “I was never there.”

He trailed his glover fingertips over my cheek. It was the first time he had ever touched me. “Please, don’t. I’m not a mage-hunter anymore.”

“You left the order?”

“There’s a lot that happened after you left. A lot you don’t know.”

But I wanted to.

Knight Corliss would not hurt me or my son.

And it would be better than trying to camp in the woods.

I accompanied him and marveled at the fortress he now manned.

“What is this?” I asked. “A refuge for callificars that suffer from serving the order. That want to leave. Need to. And what I’ve been working on since you left.”

“I… Autumn?” Knight Corliss turned to me.

I hugged my son. “He doesn’t understand,”

“He’s a mage? Like you?”

“No. We must go.”

“At least let me put you up for the night,” Knight Corliss said. “In repayment for your service to the kingdom.”

“I have done nothing.”

Knight Corliss smiled. “You always were a terrible liar.”