The League of Illusion: Destiny by Vivi Anna

did. And she ended up back where she’d started.
    But he knew even before he saw her face that something had gone wrong.
    As the audience jumped to their feet and erupted into wild applause, Sebastian took Evangeline’s hand and tilted her back to her feet. She was smiling at the crowd, ever the consummate professional, but beneath the smile she was grimacing in fear and pain. Her eyes screamed at him.
    Once off stage, she collapsed into his arms. He scooped her up and carried her to the room above the theatre where she lived. He laid her down on her bed.
    Tears ran down her cheeks and she coughed. Blood bubbled up between her ruby-stained lips. He’d broken something inside. He’d squeezed too hard with his magic and injured her organs. He felt her chest and stomach. She winced and cried out as he touched. He’d broken her ribs, all of them, and punctured her lungs. She was drowning in her own blood.
    He sprang to his feet. “I’ll get someone. A Druid healer. He’ll be able to fix you.”
    She grabbed his hand before he could leave the room. “Don’t leave me.” She coughed again. More blood spewed forth.
    “I have to, to save you.”
    She smiled then. “You have saved me.”
    He dropped to his knees beside the bed. The tears came. “No, I’ve killed you, my darling.”
    She cupped his cheek. “When no one would help me, when everyone looked at me like scum, you rescued me from the streets. You gave me a beautiful life, Sebastian. And I wouldn’t change it, not one part of it, for anything.”
    He’d taken her hand and pressed the palm to his lips. She’d smiled at him, but it quickly faded. Her life had been slipping away. He’d been able to see it wither from her eyes until there was nothing there but an empty shell.
    He shivered at the memory and turned away from Drea’s gaze. “I searched for a way to make it right, to go back in time so I could stop myself from performing the illusion,” he said, his heart numb. “I heard about a portal that could push a person back and forth through time, so I opened it and went through. And that’s why I’m here. It didn’t work and I’ve been stuck here for five years.”
    The tears came again but Drea was there to comfort him. She’d risen from the bed and gathered him in her arms. His first instincts were to push her away that he didn’t deserve comfort, but he wrapped his arms around her in return and let her soothe him.
    “It was an accident.” She ran a hand up and down his back. “You never meant to hurt her.”
    “But I did.”
    “And you’ve atoned for it. You made a mistake and you’ve paid the price.” She pulled back and smoothed his hair from his face. “You’ve found redemption, here in this place. You are a good man. You need to start believing that again.” She traced her fingers over his brow and down his cheek to his lips.
    Her touch woke something dormant inside. And he couldn’t deny it, he didn’t want to.
    Leaning down, he gently pressed his lips to hers. His salty tears mingled with the taste of her. Burying a hand in the wild tangle of her hair, he deepened the kiss until they were both gasping for air.
    She fisted his shirt and held on as he took her mouth. Teeth, tongue, lips. He couldn’t get enough of her. She tasted like a hot summer day. Spicy, tantalizing. She made his heart race and his gut clench. No other woman had been able to elicit such sensations from him before.
    He nibbled on her bottom lip, then pressed kisses to her chin, over her neck to her ear. With his tongue, he made little circles just under her earlobe. He was rewarded with her quick gasps of pleasure.
    “Sebastian,” she panted.
    “Please don’t ask me to stop. I won’t be able to bear it. And although I don’t deserve you, I need you right now.”
    “Then don’t stop.” She nipped at his lips. “I’m yours.”
    Covering her mouth with his, he ran his hands over her, seeking her flesh. He needed to touch her now. To feel the