Page 48 of Hero of Havoc

Why does that sound like a question?

I blame my nerves.

“Well, I guess the pair of you make a good team,” she declares, reaching for a few grapes as her attention drifts back out toward the horizon, but I don’t miss the megawatt grin on her lips.

Instead of peppering her with questions to make sure she’s okay, I follow her line of sight, attempting to let the water off in the distance calm me as it always does.

That sweet, melodic silence ghosts over us again as we snack, sharing every single drop of water and enjoying the platters between us until there’s barely a scrap left.

Ivy sighs. “I love this view.”

“You do?” I ask, my chest tightening briefly as she nods. “What do you love about it?”

Brushing her hair back off her face, she shrugs. “I like how small it makes me feel, yet powerful. Like, there’s a whole world out there, and seeing it from this vantage point makes me feel as if anything is possible.”

Her words burn through me.

“That’s beautiful.”

Her cheeks turn pink. “Do you like it?” she asks, and I nod. “What is it you like, exactly?”

“I like how it calms the madness in me. As if my problems aren’t big enough to fill the distance between me and the horizon, so there has to be a way of solving them.”

“That’s a good reason to like it,” she rasps, and I’m desperate to hear more about how her mind works and how she sees things. Especially since Alaric is actually keeping his mouth shut and not interrupting for a change.

“What did you envision when you dreamed about coming here?” I ask, and she presses her lips into a thin line for a moment before she clears her throat.

“Hope, endless possibilities, freedom, dreams. Everything whimsical and made for fairytales,” she says, her dreams stealing a piece of me as her eyebrows knit with masked pain.

“It’s not just for fairytales,” I mutter, and she offers me a tight smile.

“It’s not for me either way,” she reiterates. I part my lips, desperate to prove her wrong, when she lifts her hand, pausing me. “I only realized today that I haven’t left campus since I arrived, and I messaged Ember about it. I’ve spent my entire life being so confined; I haven’t even considered if I can explore beyond these borders.” Her voice is raspy in a way I really don’t fucking like.

“You can,” I breathe, my throat clogged with emotion. “You have to sign out, but you can leave. You can go wherever you like.”

I’d take her to the moon and back if I could.

Damn, I’d take her to the depths of Hell if that’s what she wanted.

My muscles clench at the idea, the desperation to keep her safe overwhelming, but I have to focus on her wants and needs too, even if they conflict with mine.

“Where do you want to go?” I ask, torn between encouraging her and fulfilling her needs, and she scoffs.

“I don’t even know where there is to go,” she admits, shattering another piece of me.

“I can think of a few places you might like,” I offer, and her eyes widen in surprise.

“That would be nice.” Her words are almost lost in the gentle breeze, but I capture them.

“My mom would probably love to invite you to family dinner too,” I add, envisioning my mother’s excitement as my mate grins from ear to ear.

“I think I’d like that too. Unless I was stepping on any toes or⁠—”

“Not at all,” I reassure her, and she exhales, tension seeping from her shoulders as her gaze finds its way back to the horizon.

She bends her legs, locking her arms around them as she braces her chin on her knee. “Who has had the most impact on you?” she asks, reversing the questioning, and I gulp.

“My mother.”