Page 132 of Power

The truth hit me with painful clarity: I had never been in control. Not really. Sure, I’d avoided romantic entanglements, but in doing so, I’d only been running from my own power. Thepower to choosethis. Because that was what this was. Not weakness or surrender to another person. But surrender to something far greater than either of us: love.

It wasn’t about giving someone else control over me. It was about acknowledging that some forces couldn’t be controlled at all. That loving someone meant accepting the possibility of loss, of pain, yet choosing them anyway.

I pressed my lips to his knuckles, tasting the salt of my tears. I had spent my entire life avoiding this very feeling, believing I was protecting myself.

But in this moment, with Jace’s life hanging by a thread, I finally understood:Love is the most powerful thing of all.

“Come back to me,” I whispered against his skin. “I’m not afraid anymore.”

And I wasn’t. Because love wasn’t the weapon. Fear was. And I was done letting fear make my choices.

I lifted my head, studying his eyes.Was that …

“Did your finger just twitch?” I asked, my heart taking off in a gallop.

I looked down at his hand in mine, panting with anticipation and hope.

“Yes!” I cried when his finger moved again. “I’m here, Jace.” I rose to my feet and gently drifted my knuckles across his cheek, avoiding his bandaged neck.

Finally, his eyelashes fluttered, and his lids slowly opened.

His green eyes struggled to focus in the brightly lit room, but after a few seconds, they found me.

“You can’t speak,” I said. “Not yet. So, for once, you’ll have to listen to me.”

His eyes crinkled in the corners slightly.

And then he looked down at my hand, and with his index finger, he traced a sign: a heart.

68

JACE

“Dude, you looked like the Cryptkeeper.” Axel popped another potato chip into his mouth. How the guy managed to keep his physique in check while eating like that was beyond me.

“Can you stop chomping?” I snapped. “I’m pretty sure there are quieter ways to consume food.”

Ryker smirked.

“Thank God you’re getting out today. Hospital rooms make you cranky.” Axel grinned, completely unaffected.

“Listening to your incessant chewing makes me cranky.”

Axel locked eyes with me and, with the deliberate slowness of a man who knew exactly how to push buttons, popped another potato chip into his damn mouth. He crunched it between his teeth with open lips, curled into a smirk that screamed,What are you gonna do about it?

Most days, I adored the man I considered family. But some days, I wanted to shove potato chips down his throat.

“How’s our favorite patient?” Blake strolled into the room.

“Any update on the ETA?” Scarlett asked, her delightful voice full of hope that made something in my chest warm.

“Discharging takes time.” Blake took a stethoscope from around his neck. “Paperwork, signatures, more paperwork …”

“Dude, we talked about this,” I said, batting away his hand. “There are plenty of other doctors in this hospital who can listen to my heartbeat.”

“But none of them are as handsome as me.” He pressed the cold metal against my skin anyway. “Besides, some of your nurses started a betting pool on when you’d finally snap. I’ve got twenty bucks riding onmakes it to discharge.”

I glared at him. He was making me sound like a mean patient. I wasn’t. I was just beyond done with this wholestabbed in the jugular, poked and prodded, woken every thirty-four seconds to check vitalssituation.