His head snaps up at that, his blue eyes locking onto mine.
“Gemma,” he says, and my name on his lips is so full of emotion it makes my chest ache. “You’ve been the only thing I’ve thought about since the moment youcame upon me in the woods.” His voice deepens, and he takes a step closer, the dock shifting beneath his weight. “Everything I’ve done in this kingdom—everything—has been because of you.”
I clench my jaw, anger rising like a shield. “Don’t. Don’t try to make this about me.”
“But it is. It’s always been about you.” His voice is raw, earnest, desperate. “I should be in the castle. In meetings. Fulfilling the duties I was summoned to perform. But I’m not. I’m here. Living on this boat. Waiting for a moment like this. For a moment with you.”
My lungs squeeze, and tears press hot against my eyes. “You lied to me.”
“I know,” he says, not flinching. “And I won’t stop you from being angry. I deserve that. But I won’t lie to you again.”
He presses a hand to his chest, like he’s trying to hold himself together. “I’ve been adrift for so long, Gemma. My whole life I’ve been a tool for other people’s gain. A pawn, a purse, a weapon. But the moment I saw you—” Alderic’s voice breaks slightly, and that rough edge slices through me. “Something in me shifted. I wasn’t just surviving or serving or existing. Iwantedsomething for myself. Ifeltsomething real. For the first time in my life, I was just…me.”
The words linger between us, warm and devastating. He’s standing there, baring his soul, and I can feel the pull between us, as undeniable and scorching as fire itself. It’s a thread of heat that winds through the air, connecting us in a way that feels ancient, fated, like our souls were forged from the same flame and are only complete when they’re together. The way he looks atme, like I’m something sacred, like I’m the answer to every question he’s ever asked—the weight of it nearly brings me to my knees.
But fire isn’t just warmth and light. It consumes. It devours.
I take another step back, the distance between us both a relief and an ache. No matter how far I move, the pull doesn’t lessen. It’s still there, burning between us, tethering me to him with an intensity that feels like it will either save me or destroy me.
But the pain of betrayal pulses just as fiercely. It’s a wound too fresh, too deep, to ignore. His words may ignite something inside me, but they can’t erase the truth of what he’s done.
Alderic reaches into his pocket and pulls something out.
The tarot card.
The one from the cake pull. The one I lost in the woods on the day he and I met.
My heart trips.
He holds it up between us, the intricate artwork catching the moonlight. The Lovers. Their entwined bodies shimmer faintly, magick still clinging to the edges like dew. Their connection is obvious, undeniable, fated.
“This is us,” he says softly, his voice gentle now, careful. “This card brought you here. It wasn’t chance, Gemma. It was meant to find you. To find us.”
I shake my head, breath catching. “No. Don’t do that.”
“It’s the truth.”
“No,” I whisper. “It’s just a card.”
“It’s everything,” he says, stepping forward. “You know it. You’ve felt it. You believe in magicknow—how could you not? You’ve seen it. And you know this wasn’t random. You dropping it where we met, that wasn’t coincidence. That was the Tower drawing us together.”
I cross my arms over my damp dress. “You’re twisting this. You’re trying to make it into some grand love story, but it’s not.”
His jaw tightens. “It is a love story. You just don’t want to admit it.”
“No,” I snap. “It’s betrayal. It’s manipulation. It’s lies stacked on lies stacked on even more lies. You and Alder—you both made me feel something real only to rip it out from under me.”
He flinches, but I don’t stop.
“You don’t get to stand here and rewrite everything as some fated-mates romance just because it makes you feel better.”
“I’m not rewriting it,” he says, voice rising. “I’m telling you what is. This card—The Lovers—is not only about love. It’s about duality. Choice. A union that alters the path of everything around it. That’s what this is, Gemma. Us. I’ve seen this before. Back in Pentacles with The Empress and The Hermit. Only after they succeeded in healing the kingdom did the Tower release them. They told me more would come to heal the realm. I didn’t think it would be us. You. Me. This card found you because you’re the key.”
His voice grows more urgent, more insistent, tumbling over itself with conviction.
“The Tower. The island. The machine we found. The gears turning, everything starting up again, it all began when you and I arrived. Delphara thinks it’s Alder,that it’s some prophecy fulfilled, a sign from the gods. But she is wrong. It’s not him. It’s you.It’s us.”
My thoughts churn, trying to make sense of it. The magick. The machine. The way the Tower revealed itself to us. How it all came alive around us.
