I nodded slowly, staring into my drink like it might hold the answer I didn’t have. The straw swirled in lazy circles as I tried to make sense of the words echoing in my ears. These were men I admired, men I trusted, yet their reassurances warred with everything I’d ever promised myself.
Their words echoed around the chaos in my mind, dragging me back and forth between what I wanted and what I feared.
“Do you have someone already?” Grandpa Easton asked gently, his voice laced with curiosity and something deeper. Could he somehow sense the battle brewing inside me?
I didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Because, yes, there weresomeones. There werefeelings. There weremen. All of them were orbiting closer, clawing at the walls I’d so carefully built.
And just like that, Tata Ternin blew it up with one comment.
“Of course, not! Not my Aniyah!” he said proudly, puffing out his chest. “She collects men like trading cards and tosses them back in the pile when she’s bored. Right, honey?”
My tongue pressed against my cheek, holding in the words I wanted to say because the truth was… I didn’t know anymore. Those men, each of them, were becoming something else, somethingmore, and I was terrified of it.
“What! Ani?—”
“Ternin, shut up!” Papu Syris snapped, giving him a sharp look that said he was seconds from getting duct tape slapped across his mouth.
I let out a slow breath and gave Tata a soft smile, just enough to let him know it was fine. I wasn’t mad, just overwhelmed.
“What’s wrong with them?” Pops Manic asked. I was fraying at the seams, and his gentle gaze rested on me as though he was all too aware of that fact. “Are they treating you poorly?”
I shook my head. “It’s me,” I whispered, the words tasting like guilt. “I’m the one who’s wrong.” My voice cracked at the end of my declaration, too soft, too broken.
With the way Papu Syris gasped, you would have thought I’d insulted the Glovefox name itself.
“That’s impossible! Preposterous! Why, I?—”
Grandpa Easton cut him off, raising a hand with a tired sigh as he pointed at Tata and Papu.
“If you two don’t quit it, Manic and I are going to tie you up with that special rope Rayla gave us and throw you in the trunk.”
Despite myself, a quiet laugh escaped me, wet and shaky but real. My heart still ached, but their ridiculousness, their love, their unwavering support… it wrapped around me like armor and made me feel like I could tell them the truth.
“What if I’m not what they desire most?” The words spilled out before I could stop them, barely above a whisper. As I asked the question, I was shaking with something I didn’t want to name. “What if I used my power and saw someone else? Or… a version of myself I’ll never be? What if it has nothing to do withmeat all?”
I hated how pathetic I sounded. I’d become this lovesick girl, like someone had cracked me wide open. My insecurity was bleeding out of me, but I had to say it. I had to get it out.
“I don’t think I could handle that kind of heartbreak,” I admitted, swallowing down the tightness in my throat. My voice grew steadier, even though the rest of me wasn’t. “It might be better if I never find out.”
Silence. Then?—
“Now,that’scrazy.”
Tata Ternin’s voice cut through the air, sharp and full of heat. I looked up, blinking back the burn in my eyes, and met his glare. His arms were crossed, disappointment etched in the tight lines around his eyes.
“Ternin—” Grandpa Easton tried to intervene, his voice calm, but Tata just shook his head.
“No,” he said firmly, then turned back to me. He reached out, brushing my hair away from my face with the tenderness of a man trying to control his fire for the sake of someone he loved. “You are a Desmond?—”
“Her last name isGlovefox.Don’t let him fool you, sweetie,” Papu Syris sang out cheerfully, reopening that age-old debate as if this wasn’t a pivotal moment in my emotional spiral.
Tata plucked the straw from his drink and hurled it at Papu with an annoyed grunt. “Oh, shut up! I’mtryingto make a point!”
He turned back to me, took a long, dramatic breath, then nodded like he was grounding himself. “Now. Aniyah, you’re a Desmond.” He stuck out his neck and gave the other three a death glare, daring them to contradict him, before returning to me.
“Being a Desmond means you do thehardthing. You face the fire. You go after the thing that might break you, might reduce you to ashes, might tear your heart out. You kick ass and do it anyway for two reasons.”
He raised one finger.
