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A small laugh escaped her, but her fingers twisted together on the table. “The bond is real. I felt it before I entered the bar. My magic recognized you before I saw your face.”

“What does that mean exactly? Other than fate having questionable standards?”

“It means your nature and mine fit together in a way ancient magic recognizes. A true mate bond creates a path between two people. Emotion can travel through it. Magic can follow it. Once it deepens, the connection can become permanent.”

“Permanent as in emotionally significant, or permanent as in supernatural restraining order?”

“Potentially both.”

“Good. I was worried this might become complicated.”

She gave me a tired smile. “The bond doesn’t force love. It doesn’t even guarantee we’ll like each other. It creates possibility. Recognition. What happens after that is supposed to be our choice.”

Supposed to be.

Two words carrying the weight of her mother, her coven, and every law that said Carolina and I should never have been seated across from each other.

“Is any of this actually you?” I asked.

Her brows drew together. “What?”

“You said your magic recognized me. You can’t stop thinking about me. The bond keeps dragging us toward each other.” I forced the next question out before fear could choke it off. “Do you want to be here, Carolina? Or is fate pulling your strings?”

For a moment, she said nothing.

That silence hurt more than it should have.

I shifted to leave. My knee struck the underside of the table, launching her cup into the air.

Carolina reacted before gravity could finish humiliating me. Gold light snapped around the cup, freezing it six inches above the table. Coffee hung in a perfect brown arc from the tilted lid. Three sugar packets hovered beside it like tiny witnesses for the prosecution.

The gargoyle lowered his newspaper.

“Everything is fine,” I announced.

“No one asked,” Carolina murmured.

“They were about to.”

She rotated one finger. The coffee slid back into the cup, the lid resealed, and everything settled gently onto the table. One drop escaped the spell and landed on my sleeve.

“Show-off,” I said.

“I saved you from wearing an entire caramel latte.”

“Exactly. You denied the room a memorable performance.”

The interruption loosened something between us. Carolina’s shoulders dropped, and when she met my eyes again, the perfect heir was gone.

“I don’t know how much of the attraction began with the bond,” she admitted. “I don’t have anything to compare it to. But I know I chose to stay and talk to you in the alley. I chose to come back after my mother dragged me away. I chose to send that message tonight, knowing exactly what she might do if she discovers it.”

Her hand moved across the table and stopped beside mine, close enough that her warmth brushed my skin without contact.

“The bond may be the reason I noticed you,” she continued. “It is not the reason I’m still here.”

“What is?”

“You looked at me in that alley and saw a woman making a choice. Not Jacqueline Fortman’s daughter. Not the future High Priestess. Just me.”