you seeing me like that.”
“Listen to me, Sheridan.” His jaw tightened, his blue eyes holding me with their intensity. “I want your best and your worst, your strength and your weakness, your light and your darkness. They’re all pieces of you, and only half is a lie.”
The weight of his words stole my breath. I nodded, wanting the same from him too.
“As far as all of this,” he nodded to our surroundings, “it’s an escape. A chance for us to be us. Xander and Sher.”
Our own private bubble.
He unclasped the bracelet, then reached for my wrist. The moment it snapped together, an aura of calm washed over me. “Whoa,” I breathed, picking up on its energy. What a powerful little stone.
“If it makes any difference, you do comfort me.” I swallowed, a little uncomfortable with my own vulnerability, but I knew these were words he needed to hear. “Do you remember what you said that day we went to the bubbles, after I told you I was afraid of my magic?”
He nodded. “I asked you to let me be your anchor.”
“Exactly,” I breathed out. “You comfort me every day, Xander, by keeping me grounded, by staying constant in a world of chaos. You’re the one person I can trust, even when I can’t trust myself.”
He interlocked his fingers with mine, squeezing my hand. “And I always will be, as long as you let me.”
In some ways, getting this close to him to terrified me.
Falling this fast.
I couldn’t help but think of Connor. With him, I felt too much and all at once. Then Riley stole that from me, and my world came crashing down. She had control over Xander too, even if she hadn’t yet realized it. If she ever found out …I shook myself. I couldn’t bring myself to go there.
Xander noticed the change in my expression and tilted his head. “What’s wrong?”
I decided to be as straightforward as he had with me. “I’m worried about the oath you made to Selena. If Riley finds out—”
“She won’t,” he promised, cutting me off. “Just keep your distance, and I’ll do the same.”
“That’s kind of hard, considering she’s waging war against me.”
He offered a sympathetic smile. “We’ll figure this out, Sheridan. I swear it to you.”
I chewed on the side of my cheek, wanting to believe him. But the longer time went on, the harder it was. I already had to remind myself daily that I didn’t truly want my sister dead. I only felt that way because the curse was strengthening.
Xander opened a basket and pulled out two sandwiches wrapped in napkins, handing me one. “We’re supposed to be forgetting the rest of the world, remember?”
“Oh, right.” Our bubble. I peeled the napkin away and held up my sandwich in toast. “To a worry-free night.”
He bumped his sandwich against mine, grinning. “Cheers to that.”
We spent the next few hours eating, drinking, and talking about magic. The sun fell on the horizon, time quickly slipping away. Xander and I laid side by side on top of the blanket and stared up at the night sky, our bellies full of food and enchanted wine. We passed what was left of the bottle back and forth, and I began to feel lighter. I didn’t realize how anxious I’d been until the heaviness left. For the first time in a long time, my world was peaceful.
I held my hand up to gaze at my new bracelet. “You would have done well in Aphrodite.”
Xander chuckled, not even bothering to deny it. “I know.”
I handed him the bottle and he tucked it into the crook of his arm. “Do you ever think about what it would be like?”
He turned to look at me. “If I never switched houses?”
I nodded. “Do you have moments you regret it?”
“Never.”
“Really? Never?” It was difficult for me to adapt to a life where I could only be one thing, where I could only practice one magic. I found it hard to believe Xander never questioned his own choices.
He shook his head. “I respect love magic, but I don’t have a passion for it. My time in the Underworld changed me. It transformed everything I thought I knew about myself.”
“What were you like before?” He didn’t talk about himself often, much less about the Underworld—and I was intensely curious. It felt as if I were always holding my breath around Xander, waiting for him to reveal a little more.
“Naïve, I guess.” He shrugged. “I believed the world was made of sunshine and