Page 62 of The Fates We Tame

His words hit me hard. “There’s truth to that.”

Niro nods as he flips the pancakes. “And as his friend, and as perhaps the only person here who fully understands whatyou’regoing through, I want to hear your reasons for letting him give that up for you.”

“I wish I had a better answer than I do. He’s a handsome, capable man with a kind heart, otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here. And I’m just a?—”

“Fuck. Don’t look at me like that. You say you’re nothing, and I’m gonna punch you in the face.” Niro raises his voice.

“Uncle Colton,” Avery snaps. Tears fill her eyes. “Don’t be mean to our new friend.”

He takes a deep breath. His lips move, silently counting up to five, then back down again. “Sorry, Ave. Didn’t mean it like it sounded. It’s just Sophia was about to tell me that she was less.”

“Less than what, Uncle Colton?”

“Less than the rest of us,” he says.

“Oh no,” Avery says, jumping up from her seat. She throws her arms around me. “Daddy says hugs solve everything.”

Like Avery, tears sting my eyes. “Your daddy might be right.” I hold her close for a second. “I got it. You know what you’re best at?”

“What?”

“Making someone feel better. And hugs. You’re really good at those.”

Avery smiles. “I am. You have a scar like Uncle Colton.”

I touch it with my fingertips. “I do.”

“It makes you unique and special like Uncle Colton is.”

The softly spoken words squeeze my heart.

She looks at Niro who winks at her then tips his head towards her seat.

“Go sit down,” he says. “I’ll make you some more when I’ve made Sophia’s.”

Avery skips back to her seat, her tears staved off by the thought of more high-octane pancake toppings.

“Niro,” I say quietly. “You’re right to ask. I have no income that I’m aware of. I have no career that I can draw on. And I have no past that I can remember. I stand here in these clothes that I don’t remember choosing. I don’t know where I go from here.”

Niro slips my pancakes on my plate. “I know what it’s like to remember every minute of my past, and sometimes I wish I couldn’t. I remember watching my sister be murdered. I’m not sure remembering is always better. But you’ve been offered the gift of a do-over. Everything is a blank page. You don’t like your hair, cut it. You don’t like those clothes, hop online, get ideas,and shop. You want to be a fucking architect, sign up for online classes, go to college. Just…I know what it is to stay stuck. I was stuck for a decade.” He glances over my shoulder briefly. “Don’t do that. Move, Sophia. Be. Show us what Switch gets out of this, not for us or for Switch, but for you. You’re free now, so do something fucking useful with it.”

Arms slip around my waist that aren’t Avery’s. They’re firm and strong and covered in ink. Lips brush my neck, and I sink back against Theo.

Switch.

“You can be anything you want, but you don’t need to be anything other than who you are for me.” Then he stands and places his hands on either side of me, gripping the counter. “Watch what you say to her, brother.”

Niro pours three more pancakes onto the griddle. “As I said to Sophia, I’m on your side. Which means you need to figure out how the fuck you convince everyone that the two of you fell in love so fast before you ask them to get involved in a war no one is going to want. King doesn’t think we should tell you everything because it would all be out of context. With no memory, none of it would make sense, but this”—he gestures between the two of us—“directly impacts what we have going on.”

Theo’s breath is warm against the side of my face, but there’s a heady strength that comes from feeling him protect me.

“Then tell me,” he says. “I have flashes of memory. Of you not giving a fuck about the rules. So, break them now.”

“Go eat your pancakes with Avery,” Niro tells me.

“No, if this involves me or my family, I have a right to know.”

Niro gestures to the table. “Go sit. You want to live this life with my brother, then you need to learn some shit isn’t for your ears, even if it directly affects you.”