AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, the bit where you put me back together again. It’s no small thing to heal someone that deeply. And now we’ve both done it to each other. There was a bond before, but since that exchange, there’s something unbreakably strong.”
I still don’t feel up to replying, but I can’t avoid a tiny nod. Laid against him like this, I feel it. Something almost physical where our two magics meet.
“I want to give you this. It can be a symbol of as much or as little as you like. Of the connection neither of us can stop or deny, or of something more voluntary and official.”
He slips a hand into his jeans pocket and pulls out the rose-gold ring, speckled with tiny flecks of emerald in a swirling pattern, which he normally wears on a chain around his neck.
“It’s my mother’s engagement ring,” he explains, holding it out to me. “Though don’t worry. It’s not like the bracelets. Dad was a better person at that stage.”
I clasp my hand to my mouth as I stare at the ring. “I can’t accept that.” My voice is shaking. “I’ve only known you for about a month. And the majority of that time’s not exactly been romantic.”
“Like I said, it can represent as much or as little as you want. One day, I truly hope you’ll marry me. I hope you’ll make this your home and be a Thornber instead of a Sadler. But I know that’s too much to ask right now.”
“I always thought I’d probably keep my own name on marriage,” I say, with a little forced laugh. “Or maybe double-barrel it. Sadler-Thornber. Everyone would love that.”
I take refuge in jokes because this is all too much to take in.What is he thinking? Maybe we could make something work against all the odds, but not this much this fast.
“I like tradition, I don’t deny it. But I don’t care about any of that a tenth as much as I care about you.”
I shuffle away from him and sit up. It’s too hard to think with his skin against my skin. “Gabriel, this is crazy. Who knows what could happen in the future, but right now, I can’t get engaged to you. And I can’t take your mother’s ring as a symbol of anything less than that.”
He sits up, too, despite his evident exhaustion, and looks me straight in the eye. “She wanted you to have it. Just like she wanted me to kill my father.”
I frown. “I never met your mother.”Other than that brief conversation in the graveyard at least.
“But she met you. In a way. She was a true clairvoyant and prophet. It was the only power left to her after Dad did what he did. I’ve got hints of the gift, though not enough to do anything constructive with, and it sort of works on a different channel.”
“Wow.” Even amongst the strongest practitioners, the ability to see into the future with any clarity and accuracy is vanishingly rare. As I’ve always argued, most magic is just manipulating the same forces in different ways. But clairvoyance involves something slightly different. It’s not a gift I’m blessed with, so I can’t quite put it into words.
“She saw you. She told me I was the right person for you and you were the right person for me. Just like she asked me to avenge her, she made me promise to make our relationship happen and to give you this ring. It was one of the last conversations we ever had.”
I smile and my breathing stabilises as a little fluttery feeling builds up in my stomach. It all sounds so romantic. A bit like what happened with Chrissie and Ray. Perhaps we really are fated to be together? I reach out, take the ring, and lay it on my palm for a closer inspection.
For a second, all I can think about is how pretty it is. It’s sweet that Gabriel’s so insistent about giving it to me, even if it’s a bit over the top. Then, as I stroke my fingers over it and examine it more carefully, I recognise the swirling, twisted pattern and freeze. I feel like I’m going to be sick.
“You planned all of this, didn’t you? You didn’t quite trust fate, so you decided to give it a helping hand.”
The emeralds and engravings on the ring combine to make the same pattern that he marked me with all those years before. Everything falls into place, and I can barely breathe.
“You found a way to manipulate me into offering myself up to you. You gave me the lien. You couldn’t give me the ring at that point—that’d seem insane even by your standards—so you did the next best thing and branded me with its design.”
My voice is trembling. I liked it better when his actions were one unpredictable thing after another. Gabriel just looks at me, his eyes wide and his arms outstretched. He’s got no comeback, for once.
“And then later, you put my family in a position where they needed the exact combination of skills that only I possessed, so I’d come back and have to face you.” I’m twisting the duvet cover hard enough to tear it in two.
Gabriel tries to put his arm around me, but I flinch away. “You make it sound so cynical,” he says, his voice catching. “I wanted to get you close and keep you close. Not to force anything, but to let you get to know me, fall in love, and see how good we could be together. Is that so wrong?”
“Of course it’s wrong!” I throw off the cover and get to my feet. “This is all completely twisted. And it sounds an awful lot like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like your mum told you you’d love me, so you built me up in your mind into someone you could love.”
Which doesn’t explain why I’m increasingly sure I love him, too, but that isn’t the point.
I thrust the ring back into his hand. I’m oddly sad to see it go. It’s so beautiful. I throw myself at the door before I can crack and kiss him.
“Take my car to get home. Bring it back tomorrow. We can discuss all this when we’re both feeling calmer and stronger.” His eyes are heavy again.
I walk out without replying, though I do take his precious Jag.
* * *
