something else entirely. The O’Connors could wait too.
She exhaled and turned to watch the world go by. There was a lot of open space outside Zagreb. Fields of green dotted here and there with buildings passed by at high speed while she gathered her courage to speak.
“Freshman year of college, I was attacked at a party. He grabbed me from behind and pulled me into a bedroom. He tried to rape me.” It was the first time Rose had said it out loud and although she’d convinced herself over the years she was okay, suddenly she didn’t feel so okay.
She’d been a victim. That much was certain now, but that word had such negative connotations. People didn’t like the word victim. Blame somehow always found its way to a victim.
What the fuck did that even mean? If someone made you a victim, that wasn’t your fault. Being a victim didn’t make you weak. Rationally, she knew that. But how she felt about the incident from her past was anything but rational.
Feeling her hands tremble, Rose pressed them between her thighs. She’d never been good with weakness. She didn’t know if it was the athlete in her or if it was just who she was, but her mom was always trying to tell her it was okay to show vulnerability.
Rose had never felt like it was okay. She judged no one else for it. In fact, she empathized and understood when she saw someone have a weak moment.
But weakness in herself was not something she allowed.
Telling her story made her feel vulnerable.
Lost in her thoughts, it took a moment for her to realize the air in the car had begun to swell, until it was difficult to breathe. She glanced at Fionn.
His expression was as bland as his tone. “What happened?”
Despite his stoic demeanor, Rose felt his anger. She could taste the dark bitterness of it on her tongue.
Rose struggled to breathe.
“Hey, can you cool it?” she asked on a wheeze.
Fionn frowned at her. “What did I say? What’s wrong?”
“It’s … not what you’re saying.” Rose felt unbearably hot. “Your emotions … you’re angry. It’s making it hard to breathe. He didn’t rape me. I got away.”
Although the heaviness diminished from the air and no longer felt like pressure on her chest, Rose sensed his confusion.
“You sense … my emotions?” he bit out.
“Yup.”
Then, like a door had been closed on a vacuum, the air in the car returned to normal with a suddenness that shocked Rose. The energy she’d felt from Fionn … it was gone. “What did you just do?”
He glowered out at the road. “Sensing another fae’s emotion is rare. It’s also a violation of privacy.” He cut her a dark look. “I’m masking myself from you.”
Rose tried not to feel hurt by this. Why should she be? They barely knew each other.
And yet she was stung by his actions.
“You can do that?”
“As can you. You can learn to mask your energy. It takes a lot of power and can be exhausting. Finish your story.”
She blinked at the demand. “Uh …”
“What happened to the fucker who attacked you?”
“Right.” Rose glanced down at her hands. “I shoved him off and he flew across the room and smacked into the wall so hard, he took a chunk out of it. I called it adrenaline and got out of there. The next day, word was the guy died of a heart defect …”
Fionn frowned. “Do you have a question to ask?”
“Could I have done something to his heart?” She lifted her shaking hands in front of her. “I pushed against his chest …”
The radio blasted on and frantically flipped through stations.
Her companion coolly wrapped one of his large hands around her wrist. It seemed tiny in his hold. “Calm down,” he ordered. “You didn’t kill the boy. The spell that blocked your abilities was extremely powerful. Your power was locked down tight.”
“I know I’m stronger now, but I was strong before the spell broke. I was on track to become an Olympian. Gymnastics. My coach used to comment on my remarkable strength … I never thought anything of it … until now.”
“Your strength is different. The spell would have been concentrated here”—he let go of her wrist to gesture to her temple—“as your abilities come from the mind. It would make it hard for the spell to suppress your physical strength completely. Why didn’t you make it to the Olympics?”
Rose was surprised by his curiosity. “At sixteen I qualified as a Senior