Page 148 of Heart of Thieves

“Making plans.” He stops. Looks at me with wonder in his eyes and shoots to his feet. “I’m . . . making plans!”

It’s a simple statement, but it shifts the world.

Because he’s telling me the truth.

For the first time.

The curse is truly broken.

He grabs me, pulling me against him, pressing his lips to my temple as he laughs. “Since I don’t need to steal secrets anymore, I was thinking . . .” Every “I” statement he makes is punctuated by a bolt of ecstasy through our pulse. “What if I turned the Liar’s Den into a sort of circus act? Cabaret, dance, whatever. Shows and games to delight and amaze. I want to extend the east wing here and build out a bigger auditorium . . .” He points. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s brilliant.”

“Only thing is . . . Since you put all my magic back in that moonshard . . .”

“Enzo could give you a supply of illusions, I think.” My hand strays to the green pendant on my chest. “I think he’d want to, if you asked.”

“I’d be indebted to him, though.” Nic gives a mock-frown.

“Sounds like his dream come true.”

“Would you”—he pauses—“be one of my dancers? In the new show, I mean.”

My lungs squeeze. “Really?” I whisper.

“I’ve seen you dance. It’s a sight to behold.”

A giggle bursts out of me, and I fling my arms around his neck. “Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes!”

This is the future I want. Him. Me. A stage. My dance shoes.

“Consider this your official audition,” he murmurs in my ear, swinging me into a waltz that has me laughing.

We twirl across the floor, our shoes scuffing through the dust. Our legs intertwine as we weave in time to the beat of our shared heart, and I see in my mind’s eye the way he looked that night that feels like an eternity ago when I challenged him to dance in an attempt to provoke him, and his face transformed to induce emotions in me. Pity me, he’d said. Fear me. Trust me.

Enzo’s offer earlier today hovers under my skin. Setting Nic free. Letting him be not mine, not his father’s, not Enzo’s, and not Laurel’s— but finally and fully his own.

It’s what I should do. It would be right.

But what do I want?

Should it matter?

I try to push it from my thoughts as we flit like phantoms through the shadows, his hand wrapped around mine, his other arm holding me so close his breath traces the outlines of my face.

No illusions. No deceptions. No secrets.

Just the two of us, clinging to each other like we once did in his pond, raw and open and wanting to be seen.

His heart thumps inside my chest, a soothing echo to my own, and it feels exactly as I thought it would, just as he is exactly who I imagined him to be when I glimpsed Donnic Sinclair beneath the Liar.

I’m not sure I can give it up now that it’s mine.

“Enzo offered to make you your own heart,” I blurt. “He said I could decide.”

Nic slows the dance and brings his palm to my cheek, smiling in that way that makes his scar sparkle. “If it were up to me, I’d keep your heart forever. But you’ve bargained it one too many times. I’ll be damned if I’m the one holding you hostage now.”

“You can have your freedom if you wish,” I say, halting and crossing my arms as I shoot him a scowl. “But don’t stand there and say it’s about me.”