Across the table, the real Sadie’s breathing grew ragged, and he knew.
She was a telepath. She was reading his mind, seeing everything he was imagining.
Suddenly she bolted to her feet, the chair clattering to the floor, she had pushed away from the table so forcefully. Without looking at him, she fled the parlor.
???
Sadie didn’t knowwhere she was running.
Away.
Away from Nicholas and his knowledge that she had been reading his mind. Perhaps she’d run all the way back to Lamsdel, gather her things and then flee the village. She’d find a new home and try yet again to live anonymously, suppressing her power. Suppressing herself.
It didn’t matter that she had decided earlier to tell him, to ask for his help in controlling her power. She had planned to ease him into it. Not have him figure it out like… like that.
“Sadie, wait!”
Nicholas’s voice, the pounding of his feet behind her, spurred Sadie to greater speeds. She spotted a door that led outside and corrected her course.
“Please, Sadie,” Nicholas called as she ran outside.
She took the path toward the Gloaming Forest, but her breath was coming harder, her steps slowing.
“Sadie, I’m sorry. Please, let me apologize.”
The words penetrated, and Sadie nearly tripped, she stopped so suddenly. Nicholas wanted to apologize? She was the one who owed him an apology. By the time she turned, he had reached her. He lifted one arm, then dropped it again.
“Sadie, I’m so sorry. I never should have forced such thoughts on you.”
“You’re apologizing about what I saw in your mind?”
“Of course. I never should have… making you witness such things was inexcusable.”
Sadie choked. “They’re your thoughts. I’m the one who overstepped.”
“You didn’t do anything.”
She gaped. She wasn’t purposefully using her power now, like she had been when they were playing chess, but her amulet also wasn’t active and she caught enough glimpses of Nicholas’s thoughts to know he meant exactly what he said.
She glanced back at the manor. She didn’t want to be standing there, having this conversation where anyone who stepped outside could hear. Nicholas could ward them against eavesdroppers, but instead of asking him to do so, Sadie began to walk. She looked over at him, silently giving permission for him to walk next to her. “I was reading your mind. How are you not mad about that?”
Nicholas’s brow furrowed. “Why would I be mad? You’ve already admitted you struggle to control your power, and I don’t think you were rooting through my thoughts for my darkest secrets.”
“I wasn’t,” Sadie assured him. “I tend to hear what I call surface thoughts, the ones people are about to speak aloud or want to say.”
“Well, there. Why would I be mad about that?”
They’d reached the treeline, and between the canopy and the falling twilight, the shadows embraced them. Sadie felt more comfortable spilling her secrets in the darkness, for they weren’t meant to be in the light. And though it was ridiculous for her to be telling Nicholas why he should be mad, she couldn’t trust his blasé attitude. What if he still didn’t understand? “You should be mad because it violates your privacy. Even if I only hear surface thoughts, some are never meant to be heard.”
Nicholas grabbed her hand, tugging until she spun to face him. “I have no desire to keep secrets from you, Sadie.”
“You cannot possibly be this accepting!”
“Says who?” He leaned closer, his gaze intense enough that Sadie instinctively took a step back. Then another as he crowded closer. Another.
Soon she found herself pressed against a tree… except that wasn’t rough bark at her back. He’d cast a ward, saving her dress from catching on the bark, protecting the bare skin near her shoulders and neck from even an accidental scratch.
“Who says I can’t accept you as you are, Sadie?” Nicholas asked.
