“I shouldn’t have lied to you,” she finished. “And I know you didn’t tell me the Council’s suspicions because you’ve been trying to protect me. But I think they’re right. I must be Summer’s traitor. Because Kester has a theory about me, aboutus,and—”
“El, stop.”
“But this is important. And after I tell you, you might not—”
“I don’t care,” he said fervently. “Besides, you can’t be the traitor. It’s your turn to hear the next prophecy piece. So now that you’ve accused yourself, have you?”
Ellery’s throat bobbed, like whatever words she’d left unspoken had lodged there. “No.”
“Then it’s not you. And I don’t care that you went behind my back either. All these people here, you really believe they’re Winter magicians?”
“Yeah. I really do.”
Domenic smiled for the first time since they’d left Gallamere. “That’s amazing, El. How are you feeling right now?”
She backed away from him, stretching his cloaking enchantment tight enough to fray. “You don’t have to do this.”
His smile collapsed. “Do what?”
“Take care of me. It’s hard enough trying to keep things between us the way you wanted, but—”
“You thinkthisis what I wanted?” He gestured at the chasm of twelve inches between them.
“Isn’t it?”
“Of course not!”
“Well, that’s not what you said when you broke up with me. So if you’re miserable, too, then why are we still doing this?”
Domenic tilted his head back, blinking as his vision blurred. “I’m just trying to do the right thing. The noble thing.”
“So am I! Of course I am! But do you even know what that is? Because I sure don’t.”
He didn’t. He never had.
“And I don’t think admitting that makes me less capable,” Ellery continued fiercely. “I think the idea that we’d always know what to do is yet another impossible thing that’s been asked of us.”
A laugh escaped him like a whimper. She had no idea what might truly be asked of them.
But for all Domenic could curse destiny for stealing their future, it bore no blame for their present. Domenic had shattered that all on his own. And he could no longer conceive of a single reason why.
He stepped closer to Ellery.
“What if I hate them for asking too much?” Domenic gestured viciously at the people around them, at everyone, at everything. “What does that make me then?”
Ellery met his gaze boldly. “Sometimes I hate them, too.”
Always, always they were the same. Even if they were terrible.
He could never think her terrible.
“Shit, El.” He snaked his arms around her waist and drew her against him. “I’m so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. I’ve been trying so hard to act the way I thought a Chosen One should. Because if I don’t, people get scared. I’veseenit. And I know what fear feels like. I can’t stand everyone’s fear being my fault.”
Ellery cupped his cheek. “Even if we’re responsible for everyone, the way we feel matters, too. You’re the one who showed me that.”
He leaned into her touch. If he had to die, he could choose no better place than in her arms. “I’m… embarrassed to admit how long I wanted this. I knew from the first time I saw you. From the first time I learned who you were. And for years, before you even glanced at me, I couldn’t look anywhere but at you. Andknowingyou, seeing who you really are, you’re so much more than the perfect image I’d fantasized in my head. And when I’m with you, the way I feel, what we have… It’s terrifying. Because I should be fighting for the sake of everyone, but what I’m really fighting for—what I’vealwaysbeen fighting for—is this. You and me.”
Ellery’s eyes widened. “Dom, do you really mean that?”
