“Don’t. You’re nothing like him.”
“Aren’t I, though?”
I ran my hands through my hair and paced back and forth, trying to calm myself down. Was she really defending him? After everything, she was choosing to trust him? Why the hells did she even agree to leave with us, anyway, if he understood her so well.
“Why are you behaving this way?” she asked, chin lifted in defiance. “I’m trying to open up to you, and you’re getting pissed about Cornelius.”
I spun to face her. “Of course I’m pissed about Cornelius! You trust him over me! You trust him over Xavier! Over your own friends!”
A sardonic laugh escaped her. “Friends.Is that what we are now?”
The breeze of the caves grew stronger. Louder. A piece of her hair whipped across her face.
“I don’t know,” I said, taking a step back. “I’m starting to think I don’t know anything about you at all.”
Hells. She’d opened up to me a fraction. It was true. Yet this urge to remain on the offensive, always one step ahead, one step above, was as strong as ever.
I still couldn’t let my guard down again. Not around her. I wouldn’t survive that again.
Even as she looked at me like that. Though her expression was full of anger and frustration, her eyes were practically pleading with me, begging me to listen.
The Rummy I knew would have stormed off by now. Would have cursed me out and left me in these caves to deal with my own bullshit.
This was different, like she really wanted me to hear what she was saying.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed out. “I don’t mean to insult you. I just don’t trust him.”
“I don’t trust him either, but you have to look at this from my perspective. I’ve been hiding my power fordecades,afraid I’ll lose control. What happened with my mother?” Her body deflated. “That was the most terrifying moment of my life. I never want to feel that fear—that power—again. Not without knowing I can control it. Cornelius is horrible. What he’s doingto his citizens has to stop. But that doesn’t change the truth that he actually has a magic similar to mine.”
Heat fueled my limbs. Jealousy and anger and a myriad of other fiery emotions. “I can help you.”
She tossed her hands up and spun around, her back to me. “Oh, please, Jessiah!”
“I can!” I marched over to her and tugged her back before she could leave. “I can help you, Rummy. Not him. Trustme. Trustus.”
A silent beat passed. The sound of my own heart beating flooded my ears, drowned my senses.Let me in. Let me help you.
The storm raging behind her eyes only grew. “You turned your back on me a long time ago.”
The knife in my chest twisted.
“Just like you turned your back on me.”
The tears she’d been fighting finally escaped, streaming down her face. Though the anger in her expression and posture helped camouflage her sadness. “You don’t know what it’s been like for me. I’ve had to live with all you perfect people and your perfect gifts, knowing all the while that I’m cursed.”
I tightened my hold on her arm. “Don’t say that. You’re not cursed. There’s nothing wrong with you or your gift.”
“Really?” she almost shrieked. “Weren’t you the one who said I was a waste of space whose only talent is getting trashed and spreading my legs for the first man I can find?”
“I’m a fucking idiot for saying those things. I was hurt, so I lashed out. Please.” Heat prickled behind my eyes, hotter than the warmth that flooded my face.
Her features softened for a split second. For a split fucking second, I thought maybe she would let me in. She would open up.
“Maybe I like Cornelius so much because he doesn’t look at me like I’m broken,” she said, crushing my hopes completely.“He doesn’t look at me like I need to be fixed. He’s willing to accept everything I am whennobody else will have me.”
“I’llhave you.I’llhave you, Rummy.”
As if I’d been overtaken by a wicked curse or freaky cave spirits, I moved my hands to her face, lifted her chin, and kissed her.
