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“I didn’t realize…” Blair said, looking away in shame. He found himself at a loss for words, deflated like a balloon that had just been trodden on.

Still, he wondered if there were things that Gabriel wasn’t telling Iris, things that might prove to be the final straw in their already fraught relationship.

Blair had known from their very first meeting in the bookstore that Gabriel wasn’t human. The faint pulse of energy surrounding him like a force field made Blair strongly suspect that Gabriel was a witch. But it wasn’t until Gabriel had frozen Blair in place just by holding up his copy of Jane Eyre that Blair was certain his hypothesis had been correct.

It was the type of coercive power Blair had only been subjected to from one other person: the witch who haunted his nightmares. She too had been able to control his movements, though she had only needed a commanding flick of the wrist to exert her control over him.

The question was, did Iris know about Gabriel’s abilities? Even if she had previously been unaware of the existence of supernatural beings, the otherworldly behavior she’d witnessed from both himself and Gabriel on Thanksgiving night surely must have convinced her otherwise.

But if she didn’t think Blair was irredeemable after witnessing his poisonous tears, he supposed she wasn’t likely to hold Gabriel’s powers against him.

Did he want her to? Did he really want to be the reason for the erosion of Iris and Gabriel’s unique dynamic?

Of course not, he told himself harshly.

Iris busied herself wrapping the ribbon around the rope, clearly lost in her own head. When she next tried to speak, her voice caught in her throat, making Blair feel even worse for his treacherous thoughts.

“I thought we were unbreakable.” She tucked the fraying edges of the ribbon underneath the rope. “Now I’m not so sure.”

Blair gasped, trying to cover it up as a cough. A thudding pulsed through his ears, spreading through him like a drumbeat, equal parts sound and vibration.

It was Iris’ heartbeat, fast with pain and anguish.

He closed his eyes, willing the sound to fade, to release its hold on him. He sucked in a sharp breath, forcing himself to look back at Iris. Luckily, she was occupied unraveling more rope and didn’t seem to have noticed his agitation.

It was the first time he’d been aware of her heartbeat since Thanksgiving night, when Iris and Gabriel had come to check on him in the living room. He hadn’t known what the sound was at first, only that it was intense and overwhelming. It had compounded with the residual tension from his dream, causing him to almost lose control—something Gabriel had clearly sensed, hence the freezing spell he’d put on him.

The eventual realization that it was the sound of Iris’ heartbeat had been both a relief (at least he knew it wasn’t something sinister) and a cause for panic. If this kind of intense awareness of her circulatory system continued, Blair wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to hide it from her.

“You think I might break you,” Blair said, expelling the words out through his teeth.

Iris’ hands stilled over the rope. Slowly, she shook her head. “No, Blair.” Her expression was unfathomably sincere. “I want you here.”

His own heart leapt, but he quickly fell back to earth. Just because Iris wanted him to stay didn’t necessarily mean that she cared for him in any substantial way. It might be that she saw him as a charity case, a stray to be pitied. Yet there was nothing but honesty in her soft gaze, and he was once again taken aback by the kindness in her expression, her cheeks faintly pink.

“You should tell him,” Blair said finally, closing his eyes in relief as the pounding of Iris’ heart slowly faded from his perception. He met her eyes again, finding it hard to look anywhere else. “I know I’d want to know.”

Iris nodded. She draped the broom over her lap and wrapped the second piece of rope around the middle section of sticks, securing them more tightly. Her legs were folded at the knee, her ankle-length black boots poking out from beneath a thick wool skirt. If he hadn’t known better, Blair might have thought she was a forest sprite, or a sorceress in her own right. Draped in the glow of the sunlight, she seemed too ethereal to be human.

Yet Iris was also the most human person he’d ever met, and that wasn’t just because he hadn’t met all that many. She was raw and honest, and she made him want to be more truthful too, made him want to bare the pieces of his soul he’d kept hidden for so very long.

“Iris?” Blair whispered.

She was busy with the velvet ribbon again, her hands unspooling it with just as much care as she put into everyone and everything. Hearing the seriousness in which he spoke her name, she set the ribbon down and rested her hands in her lap. “Yes?”

“A while ago you said you wanted to learn more about my past. Did you really mean that?” He flinched. “I’m afraid you’ll think less of me.”

Iris tilted her head as she considered his words. “That depends. Are you afraid I’ll feel that way because of what you’ve done, or who you are?”

Blair trailed his hand across the ribbon she’d affixed over the rope earlier. It was smooth and somehow felt warm against his fingertips. “Both, I suppose.”

A soft smile touched her lips as she tucked the second cutting of ribbon around the rope. “I’m not going anywhere,” she promised. “You don’t have to tell me until you’re ready.”

Blair thought about how open Iris had been with him about her own history. Her hopes. Her fears. He admired the way she spoke her truth—as freely as if she'd unlocked her soul and allowed him to take not just a peek, but a long stroll through the rooms of her heart, which were bright with tall ceilings and no dark corners at all.

But Blair’s heart was full of corners and jagged edges and darkness. He worried that it would frighten her to catch even a glimpse of it, of him.

The wind whistled around the house, causing it to let out an ominous creak. A few stray branches whipped against the windows and Iris seemed to freeze, her body going rigid. Her heartbeat pounded to life in Blair’s eardrums, but luckily, it faded barely a moment later.