Page 98 of Beneath the Starlight and Storms

“I won’t make the same mistake again,” he says, but it’s the anguish in his voice that slowly destroys me because I know what it means.

But he didn’t get to do this. He didn’t get to blame himself for something that was out of his control and let his fears and doubts win.

Ican’tlet him do this. I can’t because I finally see. I finally know what this stomach churning, heart racing feeling is. The push and pull that’s constant between us. The warmth I feel in my chest that spreads whenever he’s nearby.

“You’re pulling away,” I accuse, more hurt at the thought of him leaving me now when we finally have a chance at something together.

He swallows hard. “I’m keeping you safe.” The light in his eyes slowly fades and something in my chest tightens when it does.

“No, you’re giving up. You’re taking the cowards way out. I may be naïve. I may be new to this Realm. But I’m not so blind as to see what people are really like. I know there’s cruel people out there. I know that not everything is black and white—”

“I panicked.” He whispers so softly I barely hear it but the agony in those two little words is enough to stop me. Enough to make me want to move close to him and make that pain go away.

“Ineverpanic.” He continues, his voice cracking as he dips his head.

I stop myself from going to him, my own panic fleeting as I listen to each strained, heavy word and hope he’ll see reason.

“But I did. I couldn’t sense the bracelet. I couldn’t lock onto it. The time I wasted trying to focus and you could’ve been…” He swallows hard, shaking his head.

“You deserve better,” he chokes out as his eyes dim with pain. “Ican’tprotect you.”

Protect me? But doesn’t he see? That’sallhe’s done.

He protected me in the club with Ben. He sat with me for hours throughout the night, talked to me until I no longer feared the nightmares and memories that haunted my dreams. He created a sky full of stars for me and showed me a world that I could be happy in. He showed me what happiness really was.

He’s done nothingbutprotect me and I…I’ve done nothing but be blind to it all. Blind to him.

My heart races in my chest as it finally hits me.

I was falling for him. Settling into my chest, a soft warmth brushes against my senses as if agreeing with me.

He tries to move past me, but I block his path. “Do I not get a say in this? You just admitted that you’ve cared for me from the moment we met. But what about me? Don’t you care what I think? WhatIwant?”

His eyes shutter. “Tink—”

“I left Neverland through an unknown portal with one wish. One wish to be somewhere I was safe and cared for. And of all the places I could have ended up. I landed in the one Realm you were in. Not only in the Realm, but right beside you.”

I didn’t believe in fate until now. But it couldn’t be a coincidence.

“I wantyou, Hook,” I admit. Finally to him, but more so to myself. I was still afraid. But not of him. Of what this could mean between us if I just let it grow into something beautiful.

Maybe it was always meant to be this way. Maybe we were always meant to have to fight for it. To fight for each other and learn how to let go of our fears and doubts.

“I want everything you can give me. All your jagged pieces and rough edges. I want your darkness and your light. I want it all.”

Devastation shadows his face as he avoids looking at me. “Everything I touch turns to ruin.”

“Thenruinme.”

CHAPTER26

Hook freezesas I take the last step to him and reach up. His body shudders as soon as my hand caresses his face and tension seeps from him. As if my touch alone soothes something inside him.

But too soon he pauses, his body quickly growing stiff once again as he hesitates instead of just trusting me and letting go.

“You’ll just let me walk away and leave this. Leave us?” I pull back as frustration bleeds through my voice. But I barely make it an inch before he wraps his arms around me, pulling me tight against him as his eyes flash.

“I wasnevergoing to let you walk away,” he warns.

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