Page 5

“Because they kept you captive for over a decade, and because I know you.” Sam taps my knuckles gently with his index finger. “I know you, Tanner, and Nova does too. She might not know all the details, but she wouldn’t love you the way she does if you were a bad person.”

I clear my throat. The threat of tears surges like bile, but I swallow it down. “They told me they’d kill my parents if I didn’t do what they asked. They showed me videos taken outside the house. Photos of my mom at work, my dad playing golf, my cousins…” I dig my nails into my thighs to stop their faces coming back.

“So, you did it to keep your family safe.” Sam wraps his fingers around mine and squeezes.

“Yeah.”

“And it worked? They’re safe?”

“Yeah, they’re safe.” I look down at my hand and at Sam’s.

“Then you should tell Nova. She’ll understand. And secrets…they eat you up eventually.”

The strength of Sam’s conviction—both that Nova will forgive me and that she’ll come back and be able to forgive me—makes my heart swell in my chest. He is naïve and haunted at the same time. He reminds me of Nova when she first came to Phoenix Falls, but also of me.

“My parents didn’t understand,” I mutter. When I look up, tears are in my eyes, and I have no idea why I’m allowing these emotions to come to the surface now of all times. It’s like a floodgate has been opened and I can’t slam it shut.

“When I finally returned home, I thought they’d be the ones to tell me it wasn’t my fault. I thought they’d see I did it to keep them safe, so I told them everything. All of it. All the gory details.”

Sam inches closer and wraps his arm around my shoulders. He doesn’t say anything, just sits next to me, breathing slowly.

“They told me they were ashamed. That they’d rather die than have a son who did those things. I haven’t seen them since.”

“Tanner, I’m sorry.” Sam’s palm moves across my back. “I’m sorry they hurt you like that, but Nova’s different. She’d never turn away from you.”

I sniff loudly and wipe my face on my arm. “I hope you’re right.”

“I know I’m right.” Sam nudges me with his shoulder, then there’s a pause before he says, “Kole, Luther, and Mack? They rescued you?”

“Kole had a vision about me. He came back to Phoenix Falls, found Mack and Luther, and told them they needed to save me. That I was important.”

Sam’s eyebrows tweak upward. “And he was right.” A smile spreads across his face. “So, chances are, he’s right about Nova too.”

“You really do believe that don’t you?”

“I do.”

“I wish I did.” Taking my hand back, I rub my temples again and lower my head.

“It’s okay,” Sam says. “I can believe hard enough for both of us.”

4

LUTHER

The image that keeps coming back to me is the way Nova looked in the woods. Not when she said goodbye—before that. When we’d just been released from Thessaly’s vision and I’d stumbled away into the undergrowth. At that moment, when she appeared in front of me, everything fell into place. I knew why I loved her, and why I was angry with her, and that it had nothing to do with whether she was a human or a witch.

I loved her because it was in my blood to love her, and I was angry with her because that same bloodline had carried the pain of losing her for hundreds of years. And I was terrified of it happening again.

Now, it has. I said goodbye, and she walked away. Just like that, I’m alone again. All I have of her is the ring she was wearing on her finger when she died.

Inside the cave, I sit in the dark and rub my thumb over the ring. I trace its curves again, and again, and again.

She died.

Nova died.

“Luther?” Mack’s voice drifts through from the first cave behind the falls. I wave my hand and cast a small fire. It floats in front of me until I lower it to the ground. “Luther,” Mack repeats when he sees me, striding over and crouching next to the fire. “We’re all feeling it,” he says, putting a firm hand on my shoulder.