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We meet each other’s eyes, and the intensity there makes my breath hitch. But then the look in his eyes softens like he’s smiling, though his mouth doesn’t move.
“You knew,” I breathe.
“Of course I knew,” he whispers. “How could I not?”
“I didn’t.”
He leans his head to one side, acknowledging this. “You were still just a witch when we met. If you’d already turned, it might have been different. Throw in the bond between a new vampire and their makerandour partnership bond, and I imagine it would’ve been impossible to discern what feeling was what.”
A small smirk rises to my lips. “Sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought.”
A slight red hue touches his cheeks, and he ducks his head. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him blush before, but I immediately know it’s my new favorite sight.
But also…if he thought about this so much, maybe he was worried. That he felt the connection and I didn’t. Trying to reason out why. My stomach tightens at the thought.
“How long have you known?”
The curl of his lips is subtle, almost rueful. “I think I knew deep down since the moment I met you. But it was a lot clearer after you turned.”
“You never—why didn’t you say anything?”
“You’ve had so much on your plate,” he says softly. “And things between us have been complicated from the start, so it never felt like the right time to bring it up. And if you had wanted to be with Connor or Cam instead…I never wanted you to feel obligated. I still don’t. The connection might be there, but the choice is yours.”
Choice.The word sounds all wrong. “Does it feel like a choice to you?”
Because even in the moments it felt like I was making a choice, it was never really a question, was it? It was always a matter of finding the courage to make the choice I wanted, consequences be damned. But this being the one thing that always felt the most right has never changed.
His fingers brush mine. He waits for me to pull away, but when I don’t, he laces his fingers through mine. “It’s both,” he says. “It’s something that feels inevitable, but it’s also something I would choose for myself. The connection might have drawn me to you, but that’s not what made me fall in love with you.”
He brushes his thumb over the bones in my wrist and I exhale a shaky breath.
“I fell in love with you because of the kindness you showed to humans even when it put you at risk. The way you didn’t act differently with me because of my title. Even before we’d really gotten to know each other, you were still out here making demands and shoving your nose into my business.” He smiles as he says it, shaking his head a little. “I fell in love with the way you care about your friends and how hard you work, how at peace you look when you’re playing your violin and the way your face is so expressive that I can always tell exactly what you think about something. How you somehow never turned cold or cruel despite the cards life has dealt you. I love your laugh and the way you scrunch your nose, and I don’t believe for a minute that I wouldn’t have fallen for you just the same,anapófefktosor not.”
I fight to blink back tears.
“You might not have known as soon as I did, but can you feel it now?” he whispers.
A vibration sings in my chest, through my blood, like the cells in my body, down to the smallest particles, are answering for me. And looking into his eyes, there’s not a doubt in my mind. Not a stray thought or worry or question. Instead, my mind is filled with perfect, blissful silence.
Whatever he sees in my face must be answer enough for him, because he smiles, the expression soft, almost shy, making him look years younger. I’m seized with the urge to trace the lines of his face, the subtle dimple in his cheek, the soft hair falling across his forehead. To memorize every detail of him. To lose myself in this silent language where neither of us has to say anything at all, but somehow, I know we’re on exactly the same wavelength.
But I pull back an inch, then another, trying to force the haze away. Because as much as I don’t want to, therearemore important things for us to be talking about right now.
“Magnolia told me something else. She said there was something in your mind that you couldn’t remember. I think she meant a magical block.”
He leans back, putting another inch between us that feels like a mile as he searches my face. “You think someone planted something in my head that I don’t have access to.”
“She said…well, she said something about why you and I were paired. That my mother had something to do with it. Something that you can’t remember. Does that ring any bells?”
“Actually, yes.” There’s something uncertain about the crease in his forehead now. “When I told you my mother was the reason we got paired, that wasn’t the truth. I asked for you.”
We stare at each other as my brain slowly processes the words, and the unease in his expression only seems to grow.
He asked for me.But then he told me it was his mother’s decision.
He just needed a nudge, Magnolia had said.
“Why?” I whisper.
