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chest.
    Typical guy
, I thought, aware suddenly of how my wetT-shirt clung to me, but then I realized it wasn’t my breasts he was looking at; it was the iron key that hung between them.
    He looked up. “You still wear it. That means …”
    “It means nothing,” I said, pulling my hand out of the water. But he grabbed it and intertwined his fingers with mine. He pulled me closer, until his face was even with mine, his lips inches from mine.
    “No, Callie, it doesn’t mean
nothing
. It means you feel …” He tilted his head and moved a millimeter closer. His nostrils dilated as if he were inhaling me. “… 
sorry
.”
    “I didn’t want to hurt you,” I cried out, as if he had just hurt me. But he wasn’t hurting me. His lips grazed my cheek in the gentlest kiss.
    “I know,” he whispered, his breath tickling my ear. “You had no choice. You thought I’d preyed on the students.”
    “I didn’t know it was Mara!” His lips were on my throat.
    “Of course not. I don’t blame you for hating me when you thought I could do
that
. But even then you hesitated. You wanted to come with me.”
    I closed my eyes and recalled that dark urge as I rested my head on his shoulder. He ran his tongue down the length of my neck, and brushed his cheek against the top of my breast, nudging my wet T-shirt away. His face was rough with a day’s worth of bristle, just the way I liked it best. Hmm … hadn’t he been clean shaven a moment ago? He was changing right in front of me, becoming what I wanted him to become, doing just exactly what I liked … He pulled my bra back with his teeth and ran his tongue in a slow circle over my nipple, then sucked. I gasped and fell against his chest. His solid, warm chest. I felt his heart beating. He
was
real. I wrapped my arms around him, wanting to feel him hold me one last time.
    But he still held his arms taut at his sides. He lifted his head and gazed at me out of pain-filled eyes. He slid his eyes to his right hand, the one that still held mine, and lifted it a centimeter above the water. I felt the muscles of his forearm straining. Tendons stood out on his biceps. His jaw was locked with the effort, but he wasn’t able to lift his hand even an inch above the water line. The iron manacle I’d clamped on him held him to the water.
    “This is as far as I can go, lass. The green groves of Faerie are not for me.” He nodded his chin towards the grassy meadows where the undines had frolicked. They’d vanished over a hill, but I still heard their laughter. “Follow the sound of their voices and you’ll come to the door back to the human world. You’ll be able to open it. You’ve become more powerful since I saw you last.”
    “But what about you?” I asked, running my hand down his clenched arm. He was straining just to keep the iron from dragging him deeper into the water.
    “I’ll stay in the Borderlands. I’ve learned to avoid the more dangerous creatures who lurk here—like the shell-eaters. I’ve even been able to help a few creatures across.” He smiled. “I know it will never save me—the way your love would have—but I like to think I am making some amends for the souls I’ve drained over the years in my quest to become mortal. I thought for years that it was their fault for not being able to love me, but after you … well, I see now that I never loved
them
and that’s why they couldn’t love me.” A tear slid down his face. He tried to shrug his shoulder to wipe it away, but the effort was too much for him.
    “Oh, Liam,” I said, reaching over to wipe the tear away. “If only you hadn’t lied to me. Couldn’t you have told me who you were?”
    He shook his head and a lock of his dark hair fell over hiseyes. “No. I’m not allowed. Would it have made such a difference?”
    I brushed damp hair away from his eyes. It would always be wet now. I’d condemned him to this watery hell. His skin was cold. He would always be cold. I wanted to warm