“Okay, because we need to tell him. I’m guessing there’s no direct threat, or we wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
“No,” I say, wiping my tears away. “In fact, we kind of kicked its ass,” I finish with a little laugh.
“Roll back,” Alisha says, making a twirly motion with her finger. “Start at the beginning.”
“Okay,” I sniff, wondering where the beginning would be. “I guess… well, we had a fight. Then we kissed. Then we had another fight.”
“Oh, boy,” Alisha mutters.
“Then I went for a walk. I was pretty riled up. The snake attacked me out of nowhere. My powers weren’t enough, and I thought I was done for. Then Dan just appeared. He jumped between me and the snake.”
“Equal parts dumb and brave,” Alisha says. “I can’t see how this possibly ended well.”
I laugh softly. “That part didn’t go well at all. He melted like everyone else who gets anywhere near the thing.”
“Holy fucking shit.”
“Yeah. It was bad; he was beyond mortally wounded—there wasn’t much of him left. I grabbed his hand to pull him back, and…”
“And?”
“Something,” I breathe out the word, shaking my head as I remember the power that touched me in that moment. “Something happened. Power, unbelievable power. It poured through me, and it healed him. Then I directed it at the snake, and it made him run away.”
“Oh my goddess, Grace!” Alisha says. “You can beat it? You can beat the snake?”
“I don’t know about that,” I say. “I got him on the run, but I don’t think I hurt him. But right after he ran, that’s when Dan and I—”
“Fucked?” Alisha grins.
I grin back, appreciating her attempt at lightening the mood. “Yeah, we definitely did that. It was something insanely powerful on a cosmic level, but at the same time, it was just his body, and mine, and a sense of completeness, like we were made to fit together and could never be parted.”
Alisha doesn’t speak, and when I look up into her big violet eyes, she has a soft, knowing smile.
“Don’t give me that look,” I chide. “It’s not the same as what happened to you.”
“Not the same, but not that different,” she says. “And after all this, I still haven’t heard the big news, have I?”
I shake my head. “I woke up this morning so full of love for him. Even right now, I can feel him.”
I touch my chest gently, and I can feel his heart beating against my own, as if we’re still pressed up against each other. I even get the feeling that wherever he is right now, he’s touching his heart, too.
“And?” Alisha asks.
“And he would not even speak to me!” My voice comes out low and harsh. “He couldn’t look at me. I felt so betrayed—it was worse than having my heart broken, worse than waking up alone and finding out he’d left me!”
“Grace,” Alisha says. “I think you need to consider his perspective.”
I look at her in complete shock, and she just shrugs.
“What you’ve just described is completely terrifying to the average person. I’m only able to digest it because I have some experience with magic. Can you imagine what it was like for him to get burned to a crisp, then suddenly made whole again?”
“But that’s the thing,” I say, frustrated. “He was healed. So why should it be scary?”
“Because that was a fuck ton of magic, Grace,” she answers. “And the guys have been scared of this snake for a long time now. They’ve seen so many people die. He went up against it, and the worst happened… but somehow, he didn’t just survive, he gave it a good kick up the ass, too.”
“I’m still not understanding how any of this is bad,” I mutter.
“Not bad, Grace,” Alisha says. “Scary. Terrifying, even. Dan’s a big tough guy, always in charge, always knows what to do. He got thrown into the fight of his life, and something biggerand more powerful than him saved the day, and now he doesn’t know what to believe.”
