“Because you didn’t know you could before Devlin,” Blaise replied, his grin snapping back into place like it had never left.
Sasha snorted. “He can’treallyescape it,” she said. “None of us can. It’s calledfatefor a reason.” She sighed, long and dramatic. “So, skip it or not, my witch is destined to find me. Might as well enjoy myself while I still can.”
She was right. It didn’t matter—even if Blaise felt the same way. We were both fated to another. The best I could hope for was one more year in his company.
So, while Sasha launched into an intimate retelling of her latest encounter with a kraken shifter, I let my attention drift to Blaise instead. The way his lips parted when he smiled. The way his shadows swirled unconsciously around him, restless and unguarded whenever his focus slipped. The faint flush creeping into his cheeks as Sasha gleefully detailed the advantages of so many tentacles.
Please, I thought.Just one more year. Just one more year without being summoned.
The room stilled.
Then the first toll of the bell rang out through the hall—low and resonant, reverberating through stone and straight into my bones.
Blaise’s gaze snapped to mine, golden eyes wide with barely masked panic before he squeezed them shut, his fingers curling into fists against his thighs.
My body moved before my mind could catch up. I reached beneath the table and found his hand. He tensed for only a heartbeat before our fingers threaded together, palm to palm. With each toll of the bell, his grip tightened, as if he were trying to tether himself to me.
Four tolls. Five. Six.
All around us, shadows stirred and lifted. Demons vanished one by one, but I couldn’t tear my gaze from Blaise to see who was gone, terrified that if I looked away, I’d look back to find him missing.
Seven. Eight. Nine.
Still here. His hand still in mine.
Ten. Eleven.
No shadows reached for us. No invisible cord severing in my chest.
Twelve.
And then silence.
My heart nearly burst with relief. I wanted to pull him into my arms, press my forehead to his, and whisper“Thank you, thank you, thank you”into the space between us.
Blaise cracked one eye open, then the other. Pure, exquisite relief flooded his face so clearly it made my chest ache.
If we hadn’t been surrounded by others, I don’t think I could have stopped myself from kissing him.
This has to mean something, I thought. A ninth year unsummoned. A ninth year together. Thathadto mean something.
My gaze bore into him, the words already forming. I could ask him to come home with me. I could tell him what I’d buried for years. Tell him that I loved him.
Hope that he felt it too, that he’d want this year to mean more than just an awkward friendship.
You need to stop. He doesn’t feel the same. You took advantage of him, and you need to stop.
Blaise’s gaze dropped. He stared at our entwined hands like he was only just realizing we were touching at all. His fingers flexed once, and then he pulled away.
The breath locked in my lungs. The words I’d been shaping died before they ever reached my mouth.
He looked around the room too quickly. “Sasha’s gone,” he said, his voice strained. His gaze flicked to the empty seat across from us, brows lifting. “And Lochran too! Looks like he’ll finallybe packing in the sex ban,” he added, with an awkward huff of laughter.
I said nothing. I stared down at my now-empty fingers, cold tingling where his warmth had been.
I couldn’t go another year like this.
I swallowed hard. “Blaise—”
