Page 47 of Kai (Alpha Heroes #13)

“You mean the lighthouse?”

“No, Cece. I mean you.”

“Wait. You think that I’m your light in the darkness?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t be anyone’s light.” I fidgeted with my hands. “I’m more like a black hole.”

He scolded me with his eyes. “Not true.”

“Do you really believe that your grandmother’s words were… I don’t know… a prophecy or something like that?”

“I do now.” He smiled. “My grandmother, your sisters, our connection. All of this can’t be a coincidence. Although I’ll admit that it takes some faith to believe beyond the observable.”

“It does.”

“And yet you have some experience with the unexplained.” He paused for a moment before he asked. “Don’t you?”

My heart skipped a beat. “What are you talking about?”

“You see through people,” he said with a certainty that astounded me.

“You can tell things about them, like if I’m telling the truth, for example.

Or maybe you see something around people?

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that, given all your squinting and a couple of verbal slips, it has to do with light and auras. ”

My eyes widened. A wince of horror twisted my mouth. He knew! He knew my secret!

My chest ached, anticipating the blow coming my way. Knowing Kai, he was probably trying to be compassionate while also diagnosing me with some complex condition, or your average brain tumor, or perhaps the good old “I knew it! This Astor bitch is fucking craaaaazy.”

I shook my head and pushed out the word. “How—?”

“I’m an observant guy.”

“So, you know I see auras?”

“I do for sure now.”

I smacked him on the arm. “Jerk.”

“Sorceress.” He widened his grin.

“What if I’m nuts?” Seeing people’s auras still felt crazy to me.

“You’re not nuts.”

“Are you… like… horrified?”

“Horrified?” he frowned. “Hell, no. I think it’s cool.”

“Cool?” I winced. “You don’t think it’s unreal, unscientific, and insane to spot energy fields around people?”

“Not really.” He gave a casual shrug. “I believe we’re made of energy. You’re an Astor. Thena can read the stars. Missy is a dream walker. They discovered where you were hiding with their gifts. Your witchy superpower is that you can see auras.”

“So that’s what Javier was talking about!” It all made sense now. “My sisters also have gifts, and these are the hunches you talked about, the ones that foretold our connection?”

“Yes,” Kai said. “But I still think Thena and Missy should tell you about their gifts themselves.”

“Maybe we’re all sick. Or nuts. Yeah. I’m back to nuts. Or maybe I’m cursed. Perhaps our entire family is cursed.”

“Maybe you’re blessed instead,” he proposed.

“Blessed?”

“Why not?” He grinned. “You have an amazing gift, Cece.”

“A gift I don’t understand.”

“Not yet, but in time, you will.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I know you. You’re curious. You won’t stop until you can explain this. And when you do, I hope you’ll let me come along on your journey.”

“You… you want to come along on my journey?”

“Don’t look so surprised.” He took my hand. “I also think you have other gifts to share.”

“Like what?”

“Like love, for example.”

“Kai,” I whimpered. “You know that I’m incapable of—”

“Says who?” he demanded.

“Everyone who knows me!”

“Not everyone,” he interjected, his voice stern. “Only one man said that you were unlovable and incapable of love. He must’ve said it so many times that you believed him. One man. And… he’s dead.”

“He’s dead,” I repeated to myself.

“He was also wrong,” Kai said. “You can’t be unlovable.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because…” He paused as if gathering his courage, then cleared his throat and said, “I know we haven’t known each other for long, and yet I feel as if I’ve known you forever. What I’m gonna say sounds absurd, I know, but it’s true.”

“Kai?” I pushed the question through my strangled throat. “What is it?”

“We’re meant to be,” he said, and his conviction blew me away. “I believe your sisters, and I believe my grandmother as well. Our connection defies explanation, but it transcends time and space. I also know that you’re lovable, Cece. I know this for sure because I love you .”

A gasp escaped me, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t find enough breath to refill my lungs. “Did… did you just say… you… you… l-l-love me?” I squeaked, wondering if I’d heard him wrong. “But… It can’t be… You told the guys—”

“I lied to the blockheads. I wasn’t ready to face the music.”

“I… I don’t understand.” My heart was beating so fast I worried I might pass out. “You don’t lie.”

“I don’t lie to you,” he corrected.

I felt as if I were floating in outer space. Kai believed that fate had brought us together. Perhaps most incredibly, Kai thought he loved me.

My heart pounded, and my emotions scattered all over the place. “Maybe you need to have your head examined.”

“I stand by everything I’ve said,” the stubborn man said.

“But… I…” I grappled for words. “I don’t even know what the ‘L’ word means.”

“My grandmother had a theory about that,” he ventured. “She used to say that our time on earth was brief, but love was timeless. It’s a force woven into the very fabric of the universe. It exists in its own dimension.”

“Holy shit.” I scrubbed my face. “Your grandmother was a kupua and a poet.”

“She would’ve loved hearing that.”

“It’s a beautiful thought,” I whispered as tears swelled in my eyes.

“But you’re also thinking that love is not scientifically provable.”

I blinked away the tears and shrugged. “That, too.”

“In that case, do what you do,” he suggested. “Look at my aura. It’ll tell you that everything I’ve said it’s true and comes from my heart.”

His aura glowed even brighter than usual. The hope that gathered in my chest was too much to hold, too large to contain.

“You… you really think you love me?”

His eyes danced with a smile. “I know I do.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.” I wavered between disbelief and shock. “How did you get to that conclusion? When did this happen?”

“I got there on my own.” He lowered his face to mine.

“You did what no Zen master could do for me. You made me face my fears and understand myself like never before. You listened to my story, the one I’d never been able to tell before.

You’re the force pulling me out of the mud, helping me get unstuck, making me move forward.

Thanks to you, all those years of learning about myself finally mean something.

Everything came together for me because I love you. ”

His lips met mine, and his warmth expanded inside of me like rays of brilliant light. His mouth and his hands teamed up to show me he loved me. He put so much affection into one kiss that he filled me up to the brim with hope, with joy, and, yes, with love.

If Kai loved me, I was indeed lovable.

He broke the kiss and drew back to lock eyes with me. “Wanna give my tūtū wahine’s prophecy a whirl? While we’re at it, wanna test your sisters’ theory once and for all?”

“How?”

“Move forward with me?” His smile spoke even louder than his words. “Maybe love me back when you can?”

The answers shot out of me without a second thought. “Yes and yes.”

His smile brightened as he stood up. Taking my hand, he pulled me up to my feet. “Let’s do it.”

“Do what?” I scrambled after him and crossed the trampoline.

He paused at the tip of the forward hull and smiled. “Let’s jump.”

I glanced between him and the water. “You mean like right now?”

“Right now.” He lifted one leg over the railing and then the other. “No life jacket.”

“Are you speaking metaphorically?” I said, even as he helped me over the cables.

“Do I look like I’m speaking in metaphors?” He steadied me with his hold.

“You’re a deep guy.” I fought for balance, fighting a battle between fear and thrill and strangling his hand in my grip. “Whereas I’m a shallow bitch.”

“I don’t buy that for a second,” he said. “The only way of finding out what we can do is by doing it.”

“Is it?” I snapped a little. “Because my survival instinct is screaming in my head that you’re crazy, that I’m crazy! Also, my knees are rattling, and I’m about to pee my shorts.”

His chuckles echoed over the cove right before he sobered up. “Tell me the truth,” he said. “Are you afraid I’ll let you drown?”

A shadow crossed his eyes, guilt and regret I resolved to erase forever.

“I’m not afraid,” I said. “You would never let me drown. I trust you, Kai.”

His aura flared. It was so bright I had to shield my eyes with a hand.

He nudged his chin toward the water. “Then let’s do this for the right reason.”

“And that is?”

“To face our fears and move on,” he said. “To start fresh… together.”

His smile dazzled me almost as much as his aura did. I felt dizzy from the sheer range of emotions spinning in my head. The ocean below looked tempting, peaceful, welcoming.

Welcoming?

Yep. I’d gone off the deep end.

My adrenaline surged. Excitement flushed my cheeks and pulled at my lips.

“I’ve got you, Sorceress.” Kai threaded his fingers through mine. “You’re not jumping to your death. This time around, we are jumping into life.”

I inched forward, curled my toes over the edge, and looking at Kai, drank the smile that illuminated his eyes. He had faith. In me. In us .

He squeezed my hand and gave me a crisp nod. “One,” he counted. “Two—”

I jumped, taking him along with me.