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Neither did he.

“Remember the first time we walked this way?” she asked, voice low.

“How could I forget?” he smiled. “You tripped over your own skirt trying to impress me.”

“I was trying to impressHazel. When the council elder is watching”

“You fell flat on your?—”

“Finish that sentence and I swear I will charm a vine to tripyou.”

He laughed, and she did too. Really laughed. The sound curled through the trees like music. And for a moment, it felt like the past hadn’t fractured them at all. Like it had always been leading back to this.

They reached the old footbridge near her apothecary, where the moss grew thick between the planks. Rollo paused there,soaking in the soft glow of evening as it slid down her cheekbones, as her curls caught the light like ivy brushed with copper.

The basket shifted suddenly—one of the glass jars inside wobbling.

Instinctively, they both reached to steady it.

And in that moment, the tetherbroke.

It didn’t snap. Itmelted, like sugar dissolving into tea, a faint shimmer that faded so gently they didn’t notice at first.

Delilah blinked, realizing it.

So did Rollo.

“I guess… that’s over,” she said softly, not moving her hand any further.

“Is it?”

She glanced up at him.

And then Rollo leaned in. Slowly. Deliberately.

The space between them shrank, air thick with unspoken things and sweet, lazy twilight. His breath brushed her lips, and she didn’t pull back. Her eyes fluttered, but didn’t close. She didn’t move.

And he took that as permission.

He closed the gap. His lips met hers, tentative at first. Then deeper, more sure.

He went to pull back, afraid of getting slapped, but then he felt Delilah lean in as well, parting her lips. Almost welcoming him.

And just as the kiss settled into something real, he felt Delilah’s hand hard on his chest.

15

DELILAH

Delilah’s breath hitched.

For a moment, just a moment, everything inside her saidyes—to the warmth of Rollo’s mouth, to the hand cradling her waist, to the quiet surrender she felt blooming in her chest like a long-buried seed finally touching light.

Then she remembered everything.

How it had felt to watch him walk away eight years ago, her palms still tingling with the magic that never had a chance to settle. The way the silence between them had grown teeth. How she'd been left loving someone who didn't know how to stay.

She pressed her hand flat to his chest, hard.