“Is that true?” I brushed my thumb over her hand. Her skin was warm and soft. “The first time, yes. But I think each time, you’re controlling it. You need to believe in yourself. You’re not a walking disaster. How many witches back in your world can stop time? Can Tinker Bell?”
“No. She can’t.” Another tear rolled down her face.
Damn Tinker Bell. Damn the coven. They'd given her power she couldn't control and then abandoned her to figure it out alone.
“You’re powerful, Alice. You belong with us.”
I was surprised I really meant that. I didn't let people in—not anymore. But somehow, she'd slipped past every wall I'd built.
She stared at me, her lips parted. Like no one had ever said those words to her before. Like she didn’t know what to do with them.
“You don’t mean that,” she whispered.
“Yes. I do. I know you’ve saved my life three times. I know you stopped time to do it—not by accident, not out of panic, but because you chose to.” I pushed myself forward, ignoring the fire in my side. “I know the coven who raised you couldn’t see what was right in front of them.”
Her chin trembled. “And what’s that?”
“Power isn’t the problem. It never was. It’s the people around you who were too afraid to help you believe in yourself. But we believe in you. You belong with us.”
The tears spilled over now, streaming down her cheeks. She didn’t wipe them away. She wrapped her arms around herself like she was trying to hold herself together.
“I don’t belong anywhere, Darius.”
I felt those words in my bones.
I slipped my arm around her waist—gently, carefully—and pulled her against my side. She came without resistance, her body trembling beneath my touch.
“That’s not true. You could belong here.” I kissed the top of her head. Home. I was offering her a home “With us.”
She shook her head. “Your men don’t trust me. They look at me like I’m?—”
“They’ll trust who I tell them to trust.” I held her gaze. “I want to give you something. For your birthday.”
Those eyes. The same eyes that had haunted my dreams for longer than I could remember. Eyes I'd never been able to place, watching me through the mist, through the darkness, through years I'd tried to forget.
Her eyes.
My chest tightened around something I couldn't put into words.
She let out a shaky laugh. “You don’t have to?—”
“A name. And a mark.” I touched my chest, where the hat sat inked over my heart. “The same one my men wear. The same one the Uncrowned Seven wear.”
It felt right.
And that terrified me.
Her breath caught. “Darius...”
“You’d be one of us, Alice. Family. No one could touch you. No one could cast you out.” I swallowed hard. “Not ever again.”
Chapter Eighteen
Alice
Darius seemed sincere. The look he gave me—open, steady, certain—made every wall I’d built feel paper-thin.
Belonging.
