He stopped. Swallowed.
“Only for you.”
Cassia closed the distance between them. Her hands rose to frame his face—gentle despite the urgency, careful despite the chaos surrounding them.
“She watched you feel things for me.” The words came out soft. “And it proved everything she’d believed about herself was wrong.”
“It proved Icouldfeel. That I wasn’t broken. That my indifference to her wasn’t about my limitations—it was about her.” His hands found her waist, pulling her closer. “She’s not trying to win me back, Cassia. She’s trying to punish me. Punish you. Punish everyone I might care about for the crime of proving that I was always capable of love. Just not with her.”
“That’s…” She shook her head. “That’s the most toxic thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Years of wounded pride, festering into obsession.” He sighed. “I won’t let her hurt you. I won’t let her hurt this town. Whatever it takes, whatever it costs—I will not let her win.”
“We,” Cassia corrected. Her thumbs traced his cheekbones. “Wewon’t let her win. This isn’t your fight alone, Aero. Not anymore.”
Something in him settled at that—the fury of the past hours banking to something steadier. She stood with them. She’d claimed that.
“You should let me handle this.” Even as the words left his mouth, his hands contradicted them by pulling her closer. “You should take your friends and leave Haven Shores until?—”
“If you finish that sentence, I will call down a thunderstorm directly on your head.”
Despite everything—the fear, the fury, the guilt still clawing at his chest—Aero felt his mouth curve. “You would, wouldn’t you?”
“In a heartbeat.” Her smile was fierce. “I’m not running, Aero. My magic, my town, my people. And you’re mine now too,whether either of us planned it that way. So we face this storm—” A flash of humor crossed her face. “—pun absolutely intended—we face this storm side by side, whether the universe likes it or not.”
She’d claimed him. Called him hers. The words landed deep and stayed.
Aero leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Probably not.” Her breath mixed with his. “But you’re stuck with me.”
THIRTY-TWO
AERO
The war council convened two hours later in Avine’s suite at the Siren’s Rest.
Theo Vance had called in every alpha and community leader who could be reached on short notice. They gathered around Avine’s dining table—a space usually reserved for Girls’ Nights and comfort food, now converted to a strategic command center. Maps of Haven Shores’s coastline covered every surface. Weather data projected from Cassia’s tablet filled one wall. The air hummed with coiled tension.
“Three days,” Aero said, his voice cutting through the murmured conversations. “Based on the current buildup patterns, we have approximately three days before the tsunami reaches critical mass.”
“Three days isn’t much time to evacuate a town.” Hux Holt studied the coastal maps with sharp assessment. “Especially when we can’t tell people why we’re evacuating. ASiren building a magical tsunamiisn’t going to fly with the human population.”
“We don’t need to evacuate everyone. Just the immediate coastal zone.” Wyatt tapped a section of the map. “The surgezone. Everything within a quarter mile of the shoreline is at risk. Everything further inland should be safe from direct impact.”
“Should be,” Leo repeated. “And if you’re wrong?”
“Then we have bigger problems than evacuation logistics.”
Cassia leaned forward from her position beside Aero. “What about the ward anchors? If they’re destroyed?—”
“We reinforce them.” Junie’s voice carried from across the room where she’d been conferring with Narla. “Every witch in town working the same spell simultaneously. We strengthen the anchors enough to survive the initial impact.”
“Will that work?” Theo asked.
“I have no idea.” Junie’s smile was sharp. “But it’s better than sitting around waiting to drown.”
“The key is stopping the tsunami before it reaches full strength.” Aero pulled up the weather data Cassia had compiled, pointing to the building wave patterns in the Pacific. “Right now, it’s still forming. Nerissa has been feeding it energy for days, but the wave hasn’t achieved critical mass yet. If we can disrupt her control?—”
