Page 11

I stand at the edge of the dance floor in an opulent ballroom. I know this place. From the crystal chandeliers cascading from the ceiling like suspended raindrops to the polished marble that gleams beneath the gem-studded shoes of the patrons on the dance floor.

The Fatefinders Club. The oldest establishment in Eclipse City for entertainment and revelry. Operated by Clan Lovers and authorized to use tarot because of their clan backing.

As the elite of the city twirl and laugh, their faces blur like paints left in the rain. Nothing seems solid. Real. This place is both familiar and foreign, past and future condensing into a watercolor present. The last time I was at the Fatefinders Club was for a job. And that was when I saw…

Him.

Everything comes into focus on a single point: his face.

His deep sapphire eyes are still as vibrant as a cloudless sky.

His chiseled jaw and the dip in his chin are accented by the hint of stubble.

A tailored suit clings to his broad physique, a body honed by laboring at the forge in his family’s business.

That was the job he held until his magic appeared and he left for the academy just before his twentieth birthday.

“Clara?” His voice, deep and familiar, slices through my daze like a honed knife. As if it’s the only thing that’s real. I cling to it like a lifeline.

“Liam?” I breathe. Not here. Not now. Not like this…

“Is it really you?” His hair, the color of wet sand, is longer than I remember and falls gracefully over his forehead, brushing his neck just above his shoulders. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“I didn’t, either.” The words come from my mouth, but they don’t feel like my own. Inside I’m screaming. Screaming at the pain he caused me. And at the audacity of him to be so nonchalant after what he did to me.

He runs a hand through his hair, an old habit he always returns to when he’s deep in thought or nervous. “After I left for Arcana Academy, I thought our paths might never cross again—that I might never see you again.”

As he speaks, stolen moments rush back to me: A whirlwind of laughter and hasty kisses. Of shared dreams and secrets known only to us and the stars.

He doesn’t know, I realize. He doesn’t know that while he hasn’t seen me in years, I’ve seen him.

It was here, in this place, not long ago.

Or, perhaps, a very long time ago. My mind has become so hazy.

But I can remember a moment, two years ago, with aching sharpness.

I was doing a job at this very club. It was his second year inthe academy, I hadn’t heard from him since he entered, and his armswere wrapped tightly around another woman—a woman from Clan Star.

And that shining brightly on her finger was an engagement ring.

I shift back slightly. He catches the movement. His brow furrows.

“You could have visited me,” I say.

“You know the academy only has two breaks in the year, and they were always busy for me. My family wanted me back in the winter. Then there was Clan Star…which meant I was even busier, and, come spring, I was assigned to report to the clan early, with—”

“Another woman?” A hurt that’s never quite healed sharpens my words.

“Wha—”

I won’t even let him finish the objection. “I saw you with her. Right here.”

“I tried to speak with you about it. After I graduated, I looked for you, even.”

“Lies.” I glance away, unable to handle his face for a moment. My attention returns just in time to catch a glimpse of a pained expression that briefly twists his handsome features.

“I can’t change the past…but I can mend the present. Dance with me.”

I take a full step back.

Liam extends his hand across the gap between us, an earnest invitation. “Dance with me, Clara, please,” he implores softly. “For old times’ sake, if nothing else.”

It is tempting to refuse. The need to protect the fragile remains of my heart from further damage is strong.

“You left me.” The words tremble. Like Mother…

“The one unforgivable sin,” he agrees, knowing me too well. “But I’m here now. Please, I’ll tell you everything. I won’t leave again.”

Deeper than the hurt is a part of me that aches to reclaim what we lost. With a breath that feels like a surrender, I place my hand in his. Liam guides us onto the dance floor.

The room, the dance, the colors, everything spins into a blur once more.

It loses clarity again, growing less real by the second.

Is this a memory? Is this what is, or what could have been?

The only thing that’s anchoring me in the present is Liam and my feelings for him.

Those emotions still have their hooks deep in my marrow.

As we find our rhythm, his voice is like a caress, as sweet as the memories from days long gone. “I’m sorry, Clara, for all of it.”

“Tell me what happened,” I demand. Petty hatred for its own sake will do these old wounds little good.

His hold on me tightens, his eyes searching mine.

“In my first year, I found out I would be placed with Clan Star as one of their Arcanists. They saw potential in me and selected me early, usually it’s not until year two.

That spring break, I went to them—it was purely business. I tried to get word to you…

“But then it all happened so fast. One of the lower nobles liked the idea of an Arcanist marrying his daughter, thought it could put some magic in his family’s bloodline, and suddenly, there was talk of marriage.

You know how those zealots can be. They think blood and family lines can impact whether magical ability manifests in a child. ”

Being born an Arcanist is as random as whether you come out with a cock. It’s a well-known fact. But there are some on the fringe who treat the tarot like a religion…and as a result they hold odd beliefs.

“The marriage was arranged, and we had little say in it. Which meant it had little chance of working out.” A rueful smile plays on his lips. “When it ended, I wanted to find you…But, by the time I felt like I could look you in the eyes again, I didn’t know where you were.”

“When did it end?”

“Weeks ago.”

The revelation has my heart skipping a beat. Possibilities I’d thought long dead can suddenly be entertained again. Futures I’d thought were lost…

Lost futures… My brow furrows in confusion. Pain sears between my temples. There’s something there. Something I should be…doing?

Liam pulls me closer, as if sensing both my turmoil and my renewed hope. The warmth of his body melds with mine. It’s still there—the need that pulses between us as heavy as the music. Wrapping us so tightly together that I can hardly breathe without my chest swelling against his.

“Clara.” His voice is heavy, almost drunken. “All this time…I thought of you. It was you I wanted. Only you…”

The words dissolve into nothing more than breathy kisses on my neck as his mouth finds the sensitive skin there. I clutch his jacket, acutely aware of his strong, muscular form. We turn, his knee slips between mine, his thigh gliding all the way up, and I’m lost in the sensation.

My eyes flutter closed, my defenses reduced to cinders. I let out a soft sigh.

Liam encourages me with the gentlest plea in my ear. “Let go, Clara. Never push me away, not now, not ever.”

For a fleeting moment, I do let go. I am ready to surrender to the fantasy. To the idea of us. To finally getting someone back in my arms again after losing them.

“Luck is on our side, after all.”

That’s mine to say . The moment the thought crosses my mind, it’s followed by the realization that he is not the first man to steal my expression. A flare of anger lacks a target until the outline of a particularly arrogant man flashes across my memory. Kaelis.

My eyelids flutter open. The room is painfully bright, a mockery of reality. Even though I cannot see beyond the half-real illusion before me, I know that the entirety of the academy can still see me. The thought has me hot with nausea.

“Don’t end this.” Liam’s lips trace a path along my jaw. Pleading. “Let yourself have it.”

Awareness is a cold wave crashing over me. I jerk away, gasping for air with the same desperation as when I escaped from Halazar. Every dull ache and sharp pain is back in my body. I’m in not a ball gown, but tight leathers.

The spell is broken and the fantasy shattered. To think…I’d almost let myself have it—let fate win by giving in to the illusion rather than killing it as I should have been doing all along.

“I can’t.” My voice trembles as my heart screams for me to reconsider my decision. “I’m so sorry, Liam.”

The space between us is back, as vast and insurmountable as it has been for years. Tears threaten to well in my eyes as I slowly beckon cards from the deck in my pocket. The cards hover in midair, shimmering with the magic grip I still keep on them.

I know each card without seeing them—even if their inking is a bit strange to me. Before I had friends, I had the cards. I knew the faces of the royal suits better than the faces of my neighbors.

Sword cards crack and snap like heat lightning near the mountaintops on a summer day.

Wands crackle like fire, their warmth shooting into my elbow.

Cups douse the sensation with a rush of cool water through my veins.

And Coins are as heavy as rocks despite being made of nothing more than paper and pigment like the rest.