"I know what uncontrolled magic can do." My hand went instinctively to my vest, pressing against the fabric that hid my scars. "Trust me, I've already paid that price once."
A flash of confusion made my stomach drop. But before he could ask the questions I saw forming, I pushed away from the wall. "I need to go."
"No." He moved faster than I could track, suddenly between me and the street. "Look. Why don't you hang out a while."
"Move."
"No."
The challenge in his voice sent heat spiraling through my chest. My power responded instantly, threads lighting up around us in a web of connections I'd never seen so clearly. His silver thread blazed brightest, wrapping around me in ways that should have been impossible.
"Don't." My voice cracked, and I swallowed hard. "Please don't do this."
"Do what? Care whether you make it home in one piece? Or wonder why you're so determined to handle this alone when you clearly need?—"
"I don't need anyone." I insisted, but the lie tasted bitter. "Especially not some damn vampire who thinks a few pretty words and concerned looks mean anything."
His eyes flashed with something intense and dangerous. "Is that what you think this is?"
"I don't know what this is!" The admission burst out before I could stop it. "Okay? I don't know why being near you makes everything clearer and more out of control at the same time. I don't know why my magic responds to you like you're... like you're..."
I couldn't say it. Wouldn't say it.
But I didn't have to. Because he knew. I saw it in the way his eyes darkened, in the way his entire body went completely still.
"We're not that," he said flatly. "We can't be. It's not possible."
The rejection shouldn't have hurt. I mean, I'd just been thinking the same thing. But hearing him say it, seeing the denial in his eyes, made the tight ball in the center of my chest suddenly crack open.
"Obviously." I forced a laugh, fighting back a sudden rush of tears. "Even if it were possible, which it's not, someone like you would never..."
I trailed off, unable to finish. Unable to voice the truth that had lived in my bones since I was fourteen. Someone like him—perfect, powerful, whole—would never want someone like me. Someone broken. Someone missing pieces that couldn't be fixed. I mean, I guess it could. Now that I was grown and finished developing, I could go find a surgeon to give me a fake breast. But having one perfect fake breast that didn't match the other one or age the same seemed like it would be even worse than not having one at all.
"Someone like me would never what?" His voice had gone deadly quiet.
"Forget it." I tried to step around him, but he caught my arm. The contact sent electricity shooting through my limbs and out my fingertips, threads of power only I could see spiraling out in every direction.
"Someone like me would never what, Talin?"
The way he said my name made my knees weak. Made me want things I had no business wanting.
"Let go."
"Answer the question."
"Why? So you can pretend to disagree? Save the pity, Elias. I've had enough of that to last several lifetimes."
His grip tightened fractionally and his dark eyebrows came together in a frown. "You think I pity you? Why the hell would I do that?"
"I think you feel this thing between us and you're too decent to just walk away, even though we both know?—"
He yanked me against him so fast the words died in my throat. My hands came up instinctively, pressing against his hard chest, and the world exploded into light.
Every thread in New Orleans suddenly became visible. Thousands upon thousands of connections, a tapestry of fate and choice and possibility. But at the center of it all, burning brighter than the sun, was the thread between us. Not silver anymore, but pure white, pulsing with a power that made my bones ache.
And through that thread, I felt him. Elias. Really felt him. The carefully controlled hunger. The decades of loneliness hidden behind order and routine. The way his entire being had reorganized itself around my presence in the space of a single evening. The want that consumed him as thoroughly as it consumed me.
"This is the only thing I feel," he growled against my ear. "This is what happens when you're near me. Everything I use to keep myself together, it all goes to shit the second you walk in. And the worst part, little witch? I don't even care. I would let you destroy everything I've built if it meant..."
