“You can’t be with him,” Hektor said, voice lowering further. “Or anyone else.”
She forced her voice light, teasing, because if she let her actual heart speak, she’d probably choke. “Why not?”
His breath shook, not a big one, barely visible, but she caught it.
“Because,” he said, eyes locked to hers like a vow, “you are meant to be withme.Not with a basilisk or any other male. Only me.”
The parking lights hummed, heat rising from stone, basilisk taxis coiled in silent judgment.
Zara didn’t breathe.
He said it. He finally said it.
She swallowed, pulse sprinting. But she lifted her chin, still pretending to be unimpressed, because the minute she softened, he’d retreat.
“Are you telling me you want me,” she asked lightly, “or that you’re jealous and confused and don’t like sharing?”
He didn’t blink. “Both.”
That cracked her composure, just a tiny hitch of a smile she couldn’t stop.
He saw it. Of course, he saw it.
“So,” she whispered, “what do you want, Hektor?”
“You.” His answer didn’t stumble. Didn’t falter. “In any realm, in any city, in any form. You.”
Her heartboltedagainst her ribs.
She kept her tone steady, almost bored. “Well,” she said, “since you interrupted my date…you owe me a new one.”
Hektor blinked. “…A date.”
“Yes, a date,” she said, jabbing a finger at him. “A proper one. With dessert. And feelings. And eye contact. And no brooding.”
He exhaled something close to a laugh, but too shaken, too earnest.
“Okay,” he said, eyes softening at the edges, “I’ll take you anywhere you want.”
Anywhere.
She let herself smile, actually smile.
It was happening.
Finally, irrevocably, undeniably happening.
Zara inhaled because she knew she couldn’t, shouldn’t, keep what she had been doing with Pythorus from him. And she braced for the blowback he’d surely deliver.
“There’s…something I need to tell you,” she said in a rush.
Hektor straightened, jaw tight, eyes still storm-dark from his confession.
“Thereis noother guy,” she blurted. “Pythorus isn’t…he’s not my date. He’s gay. We’re just, we vibe, okay? As in, talk-about-books-and-hate-the-same-gods vibe. We were tricking you.”
Hektor blinked once.
Then twice.
