Noah's sigh deepened, his shoulders slumping slightly. "Yes, I did."
Grace's eyes narrowed slightly. "When you have a mate, you still have to look at your best friend."
Noah shook his head, his voice tinged with regret and sorrow. "It wasn't like that. Forty-two years ago, I was an eighteen-year-old boy, newly mated. Rebecca and I met at the academy, you know." A ghost of a smile appeared on his face before it vanished, swallowed by the shadows of the cemetery. "My school was filled with trolls, vampires, dragons, centaurs—even some minotaurs. My only crime was being friends with a witch who had a crush on me."
Grace's voice was calm but firm. "You should have avoided her."
Noah let out another sigh, the sound heavy with the weight of years. "I knew she had a crush on me, but I didn't know it was an obsession."
