Free Fateful Magic (The Star-Crossed Series Book 8) by Rachel Higginson

tried to hold back.
    I thought
he was pretty adorable like this and it made me fall a little harder for him. I
couldn’t stop my smile. “I did.”
    Talbott’s whole face lit up with his proud smile. “Then, let’s go.”
    “Okay.”
When he reached for my hand, I gave it to him willingly.
    “So…
you’re going?” Avalon called from behind us. We ignored him, but he still
shouted after us, “What just happened? What am I missing?”
    Talbott opened the passenger door of the little sporty thing he drove here
and I climbed in. He loaded my bags in the trunk while I sat waiting for him.
My heart pinged around my chest like the ball on a pinball table while I waited
for him to join me.
    What was
I doing?
    Could I
really go through with this? Could I really give up every fear and anguished
memory of our past and give in to what my heart truly wanted?
    I heard Avalon and Talbott talking quietly
before Talbott said goodbye and jumped in the driver’
seat. He shot me
another anticipatory smile and then started the car.
    We drove
away from the safe house and I couldn’t help but feel like my entire world was
about to change. It was this profound thing inside me. The
knowledge, the confidence, the absolute conviction that not one of the days
ahead of me would ever be lonely again. Admitting my feelings to Talbott would change me irrevocably and solidify something
in my life that had been missing.
    I had to
let go of what had happened in our past and of all the misconceptions I’d held
about him all this time.
    If Talbott could do the same thing for me, then what stood in
my way to stop him?
    He had me
thrown in prison once, but then I’d plotted to end Kiran ,
who was like a brother to Talbott . He had kept his
distance because he was afraid of the strength of his feelings for me. But I’d
kept my distance from him too, hoping I would never have to acknowledge how I
felt about him. He’d been raised in a culture that helped him develop prejudice
and unfounded hate. But then, so had I. He’d betrayed me when the Guard had
attacked the farm.
    But then
he’d fought every day since then to make sure I stayed alive. He helped rescue
and save my parents. He helped rescue me. And I knew he’d saved my life more
than once.
    I could
get beyond our pasts. I had gotten
beyond our pasts. So far beyond.
    And now
there was nothing but a future to look forward to.
    I just had
to tell him that.
    But what
if… what if he had stopped feeling that way for me? Or didn’t feel as strongly
as I did for him? What if I told him my feelings and he got bored with me?
    Could I
go through with this?
    New
nerves fizzled through me, turning my chest into a pounding drum and my Magic
into an active volcano of energy.
    “Where
are we going?” I asked in a whisper after hours of silent travel. We seemed to
be headed toward the top of a mountain.
    “We need
to talk,” he said simply.
    That
eased some of my most-recent fears. “Okay.”
    “Okay?”
he asked with his thick accent. “Really, okay?”
    I smiled.
“Yes, okay.”
    “What’s
changed, Lilly? Why are you so willing to speak with me?”
    “We’re
going to talk , Talbott .
I have some things I’d like to say too.”
    He had
trouble swallowing but settled down after that. As we continued to climb the
mountain, the warm afternoon sunlight poked through the tall trees and shined
spotlights down on the winding road. I felt this great sense of peace come over
me. My usual anxiety and plethora of fears drifted away and the space they’d
dug out inside me filled with calm and trust.
    It was
all Talbott , I realized.
    I
couldn’t believe that. I didn’t know love would be like this.
    I hadn’t
really thought about it, but I guess I had assumed that love would just be an
addition to all the other feelings and fears I felt. I didn’t realize love
would come into my life and negate all that had plagued me.
    It took
my fear of being alone and erased it. I wouldn’t be alone because I