“I need to tell you something.” There was something in his tone that made my stomach clench with sudden anxiety. “Something important.”
I lifted my head to look at him, my heart suddenly racing for entirely different reasons. “You can tell me anything,” I assured him.
Silver’s expression was carefully neutral, but I could see the tension in his jaw, the way his silver eyes wouldn’t quite meet mine. “I… I’ve been holding something back. Something I feel like I should’ve told you a while ago.”
“Okay,” I nodded, getting more nervous by the second. Was this it? Had Silver had enough of me? Did I do something to drive him away?
“I’m…” he paused again, searching for the words. “I’m…”
“You’re what?”
He finally let out a long sigh, shaking his head. “Ash… I’m falling in love with you.”
My breath caught in my throat. The words hung in the air between us, and for a moment I couldn’t process them. Silver was falling in love with me?
“You’re... what?” I whispered, needing to hear it again, needing to make sure I hadn’t misheard.
Silver’s silver eyes finally met mine, and the vulnerability I saw there made my chest ache. “I’m falling in love with you, Ash. I have been for a while now, and I can’t keep pretending that this is just about a bond or a spell. It’s more than that. At least for me.”
My heart hammered so hard I thought it might burst through my ribs. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. What was I supposed to say? That I felt the same way? That the thought of being apart from him made me feel like I was drowning? That every moment we spent together felt like the universe finally made sense?
“You don’t have to say anything,” Silver added quickly, misreading my silence. “I just... I needed you to know. I couldn’t keep it inside anymore.”
“No, I—” I started, my voice cracking. I cleared my throat and tried again. “I feel the same way. I think I have for a while too.”
The relief that washed over Silver’s face was immediate and profound. His hands came up to cup my cheeks, pulling me down into a kiss that was somehow both gentle and desperate. When we broke apart, he pressed his forehead against mine.
He let out a shaky breath. “I was terrified you wouldn’t feel the same.”
“How could I not?” I asked, my fingers tracing the sharp line of his jaw. “You’re everything, Silver. You make me feel like I matter. Like I’m not just some cursed witch from a forgotten family.”
“You do matter,” he said fiercely. “You matter so much it scares me.”
Something in his tone made my stomach twist with unease. “What do you mean?”
Silver’s expression shifted, and I saw that earlier vulnerability return tenfold. He gently lifted me off him, and I winced at the loss of connection. He grabbed a towel from the floor and cleaned us both up before pulling me back into his arms.
“It’s just nerves,” he replied at last, his gaze not meeting mine. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”
I pulled him in tighter. “Me either. But we’ll figure it out, okay?”
He nodded, kissing my neck softly. “Okay.”
Chapter 19
Silver
“You sure you want to go to this party?” I asked, my hand laced through Ash’s as we walked across campus. “It can be a bit…intenseI guess.”
“Well, I’ll have you there, right?” he smiled back, giving my hand a squeeze. “I know you’ll take good care of me.”
“Right,” I nodded. “Well, just don’t let people rile you up. The guys can be a bit much sometimes. They like to make jokes.”
“Then I guess I’ll just have to make them scared of me, won’t I?” Ash gave me a wink, the shadows around him wiggling in a semi-threatening manner. “So, explain to me how this stoplight thing works again?”
“It’s pretty simple. You wear green if you’re available, yellow if it’s complicated, and red if you’re taken.” I glanced down at the bright red shirt I was wearing. “Usually, people wear green to hook up, but the rest are just there for the drinks and stuff.”
“And you usually wore green to these, right?”
