“Revenge has been my lover for too long," he said, breath hot on my neck. He began sliding down my body, toward the floor, arms around me. "Power, my savior. I need to learn how to put you first, above those things. I need you to help me, to teach me. I don’t want to love anything more than you, Eden, so please, I’m begging you, show me how. You need to be my everything.”

“Nick,” he said. “I think I’m going to need you to bite my arm.”“I think I’m going to need you to run that by me again.”

“Is there anything else you haven't told me?"My head spun. So much had happened and we still needed to stop a powerful magician. Death was a real possibility. I needed Valek to know how I felt."I love you"Valek wrapped me in his arms. "My love has been yours since the fire festival. If those goons had killed you, I knew then that I would never be the same. I didn't want or expect this. But I couldn't resist you.”

“What the hell do you want from me?” “What are you trying to do to me?”“Stop! Just stop!” he spits.“Why? What else needs to be said? I think you’ve told me enough lies for a lifetime.”“No more lies,” he says angrily. “I don’t even want to talk to you anymore. I just want to hear you tell me that you don’t feel anything for me. That you want me to leave you alone and never come back. Then I’ll go. If that’s what you really want, I’ll go.”“Don’t. Please don’t say it.”“Why?”“Because I don’t want you to. I need you to come back to me. Not to help me. Or to help my father. I’m done with that. I don’t want your help. It all boils down to you. I just want you.”“I just want you.”“Okay.”

“But I must tell you that..." he paused and his voice filled with infinite gentleness and tenderness. "You are so very precious to me," he whispered against her neck. "You are my heart as it moves within my chest, my soul as it moves through my mind. The breath in my body that so fascinates you is your essence pouring in and out of me in a wave that drowns me over and over again until I cannot breathe for wanting you. Needing you.”

“I need you, Jess, with everything in me I need you, not just now or tonight, but forever. You're my North Star and Safe Harbor and all those other sappy clichés, but above all else, you are my dragon slayer. I need you tonight. I need you in my arms where I can feel your heart beating in time with mine. Just hold me and… and let me hold you in return.”