“This could have my mom killed,” she whispered, her voice shaking.
I sat up slowly and carefully, like I was facing a wild animal. “I had no choice—”
She snatched up the dagger. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t kill you right now.”
I scooted backward on the bed, my heart launching into my throat. “B-because…”
She followed, climbing on the bed on her knees, her nostrils flaring with barely suppressed rage. “I trusted you. I thought—”
“Because you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” I blurted. “Because I love you.”
It felt like I’d thrown myself off a cliff, not knowing if there would be water or rocks waiting below.
She froze, her expression going blank. She clearly did not expect this to come out of my mouth.
And neither did I.
I’d imagined saying those words to her in any other scenario than this. Maybe in bed, or over dinner, or on a walk. Not at knifepoint. Not as a bargaining chip for my life. But there they were, hanging between us.
Finally, she scowled. “You’re just saying that to save your own ass.”
“I’m not! If I wasn’t head-over-heels in love with you, I would have backed away from this mess long ago. But I’m here, and I’m with you no matter what.”
Mythroat tightened around the confession. I wasn’t lying—not really. I know it’s soon, but what I feel for her is so real. The way she looks at me, the gentleness in her touch, her smile that changed my whole world. She makes me feel like no one else ever has. I never want to stop this thing between us, as messed-up as it is.
And yet, as my admission hung in the air, I couldn’t help thinking of Katie and Natalie, and what love looks like for them. Even from afar, I can feel that what they have is steady, safe, like home. What Oaklyn and I have feels more like standing at the edge of a volcano, beautiful and terrifying and potentially deadly.
But maybe that’s the difference between them and us. Maybe some love is a warm hearth, and some love is like wildfire.
I don’t mind ours. The wildfire.
Even sitting on Oaklyn’s bed at the end of her dagger, when I wasn’t sure whether she was about to kill me, I couldn’t regret a single moment with her. That had to mean something, right?
Her expression twisted as several emotions flickered across her face.
“If you love me, then prove it,” she snarled, grabbing my arm and pulling me off the bed.
She didn’t say she loved me back, and I didn’t expect her to. With all the fear rocketing through me, I barely felt the sting. And when she pulled on her pants and jacket and tugged me out the door with her, I went willingly.
The words still hummed in my chest, both true and calculated.
Would we be too late to stop the witches from hurting Sophia? Was saving Sophia even what I wanted?
As we raced out of Oaklyn’s apartment, two things werecertain.
The first was that I had to do something drastic to save myself and Katie.
The second was that I had to come clean about my beliefs: it’s unfair that Oaklyn has been labeled a criminal because of what she’s fighting for. She and her mom aren’t wrong to want an equal distribution of magic.
The coven’s secrecy, the way they’ve bullied and threatened Katie, and their monopoly on magic have convinced me that they’re the bad guys here. They don’t even know who I am, and if they did, they would respect me even less than they respect Katie. Hell, they punished Natalie for loving a non-witch.
But Oaklyn? She was born normal like me, with no chance at magic. Her brother died fighting for what should be a universal right. The way she talks about her family, the pain in her eyes… How could I not sympathize?
So yeah, I agree that magic shouldn’t be hoarded by a few self-appointed gatekeepers. And if believing that makes me a criminal too, so be it.
Chapter 21
Things That Don’t Make Sense
