Page 147 of Hidden

Brayden had warned me this would happen, but why now?

My pondering faded away as the warmth of adoration—love—warmed my skin. There was a genuine, compassionate sincerity to his feelings, which ran so deep they almost took my breath away.

However, he also radiated self-loathing and doubt. My chest felt heavy from the weight of it.

How could I have thought so little of him? I was used to being lied to and manipulated. It was something I expected. But with Julian, there was no dishonesty or darkness in his motives.

This was Julian—raw and exposed. He held nothing back, and his presence filled me with a strength I normally wouldn’t possess. He didn’t care if this openness made him vulnerable.

His face wavered in my vision.

No—my breath caught—he wasn’t entirely benevolent either. While he held no ill intentions toward me, I could now sense the part of him he’d so carefully concealed.

He was powerful, but there was a loneliness and zealous nature to him, held at a depth that couldn’t be reached by the light. He didn’t want to do the things he’d done, but he would suffer through them—for me.

“It’s okay.” The last of my anger faded. I pushed to my knees, never breaking eye-contact, and touched his face. “I understand. I’m not angry.” And this time, I meant it.

“Bianca, I love you,” he said, running his hands down my arms. His tone was desperate, and the pain of it sunk into my bones, and his anxiety was almost contagious. “In every life we’ve shared, I’ve felt this way. I only want you safe. If it helps, I can—”

My heart raced as our lips collided and his warmth washed over me. His hair was soft and his sensual mouth moved like silk under mine.

Again, I had made the first move on one of the boys. But Julian’s earnest plea had been impossible to ignore. My body, and my heart, had been pulled toward him at the flood of his emotions. My fingers tangled in his curly hair. He tasted like the ocean, and the sensation of his chest against mine was electrifying. I poured the last ounce of courage into this moment.

Because it wasn’t something I could repeat anytime soon. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, but—already—the skin at the back of my neck prickled.

With that—as awareness stirred in Julian and his touch, which had moved to my shoulders, dropped away—I pushed back.

His cheeks had darkened, and his expression was clouded in a sense of bewilderment. But through that, wariness and concern radiated from him. “Bianca—”

“Stop.” I pressed my fingers to his lips. My pulse soared. His admission continued to ring through my head. “It’s fine, I can feel you.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Bianca

Emotion

“You can really feel my emotions? I’d hoped…” Julian’s uncertainty fled, and barely restrained joy filled its place. “You decided to accept your role?”

“What do you mean?” Hadn’t I always?

Nothing had changed in the last ten minutes. I’d only decided to stop running.

“The empath of the quintet completes the group,” Julian said. “It is when they accept their position they’re able to pick up on the other’s emotions.”

I frowned at him, feeling slightly hurt. That wasn’t fair, I’d been accepting from the beginning. “I’ve always been on board.”

Julian shook his head, his eyes fierce. “You need totrustyour quintet. To expose a part of yourself that you never normally would. You haven’t been ready for that step, but we were waiting for you to settle before discussing it.”

This was both good and bad. Brayden was right on how this feeling worked. Itwaseasy to distinguish Julian’s emotions from my own. They were something that radiatedatme, rather than from in me. And it was different than the brush of emotions that one experienced from a spirit.

But seriously, I might not be ready for this.

“How is this different than what you do?” I wondered.

Julian cocked his head. “A Water elemental can read emotions by sensing and interpretingthe body’s reaction to a situation. We need to be touching the person we are reading. So, technically, we are empaths—in a way. But your work isn’t tied to the physical body like mine is. Your focus is another level of existence. That’s why you can feel the emotions of people you’re spiritually linked to, and ghosts.”

I wasn’t used to this. And Brayden had said I would need to master my own emotions first. “Am I going to feel everyone’s emotions now?”