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Love. The word hung in the air between us. Was that what this was? This feeling that had been growing steadily since a baby donkey in dragon wings had brought Flynn Kingman barreling into my life?

Flynn looked up then, catching my gaze across the room. His smile softened into something more intimate, just for me. I made my decision.

Rising from my seat, I crossed to where he stood with his brothers.

For the first time since my secret had been exposed, I felt something other than fear. I wasn’t exactly fearless, but I would fake it, and be brave.

“Ready to have a little more fun, babe?” Flynn led me to a table set up with something that looked like a complicated version of Candyland and Scrabble mixed together.

Flynn wasn’t kidding when he said his family got competitive at their game night.

“They’re cheating,” Jules accused, pointing dramatically at Isak and Gryff. “There’s no way they had two double word scores in a row.”

“Maybe if you spent more time studying vocabulary instead of romance novels,” Gryff shot back, “you’d have a chance against us.”

“Do not start with me, Gryffin Kingman,” Jules threatened, lunging for the family’s lucky pillow. “I know where you sleep.”

I couldn’t hold back my laughter as Jules tackled her much larger brother, attempting to wrest the pillow from his grasp.

The Kingman family game night was nothing like the reserved, intellectual games my parents liked to play.

No, this reminded me of the summers at Abuela’s villa in Mexico, getting into all kinds of trouble with the neighborhood children.

This was full-contact, no-holds- barred competition, complete with trash talk, dramatic accusations, and the occasional physical scuffle.

And I was loving every minute of it.

“Your turn, Tempest,” Willa said, passing me the dice for our current game, something involving dragons and complicated story quests that I was still figuring out.

I rolled, surprised by my own competitive surge of satisfaction when I landed on a prime trading space. “I’m making friends with the wolves and they become my allies, warding off all attacks on my village,” I announced, placing my game piece with perhaps more force than necessary.

“Oh ho,” Isak exclaimed, looking delighted at my aggressive move. “Girls, man. They run the world.”

Flynn caught my eye from across the table, his expression a mix of surprise and delight. I realized I’d been holding back, not just in the game, but in so much of my life. Always trying to be smaller, quieter, more proper. The Tempest my mother wanted me to be.

But here, surrounded by this boisterous, loving family and my equally dramatic grandmother, I didn’t need to be less. I could be more .

“That’s my girl,” Abuela crowed when I successfully negotiated a trade deal that left Trixie groaning in defeat. “She gets that ruthless nature from her Abuelo.”

“It certainly wasn’t from me,” Tío Pedro laughed shaking his head. He always was a lover, not a fighter.

To my surprise, Abuela and Bridger Kingman had formed an unlikely alliance in the game, absolutely eviscerating all competition with their combined tactical skills.

Watching them, I realized how much I’d compartmentalized my life.

School Tempest, family Tempest, secret author Tempest, Flynn’s girlfriend Tempest. All these separate versions of myself that I kept carefully isolated from each other.

I didn’t want to live like that anymore.

Three hours and four hotly contested games later, I found myself the unexpected champion of the final round of a card game that involved bluffing and strategy in equal measure.

“Beginner’s luck,” Declan grumbled good-naturedly as I collected my winnings, which consisted of a pile of gummy bears that had served as betting currency.

“Natural talent,” Abuela corrected, looking impossibly proud.

As the night wound down and people began gathering their things, I felt a strange sense of calm settle over me. Tomorrow would be difficult. My parents would be upset, disappointed, perhaps even angry. The campus gossip would continue, and the media scrutiny might intensify.

But tonight had shown me something important.

I wasn’t alone. I had Flynn, who had never once looked at me with anything but admiration and desire.

I had Abuela and Tío Pedro, who had always embraced all of me.

I had this extended circle of the Kingman family and their partners, who had welcomed me without hesitation.

And most importantly, I had myself—all of myself, the parts I’d been proud of and the parts I’d hidden away.

Tomorrow, I would face my parents not as the dutiful daughter desperate for approval, but as Tempest Navarro, best-selling author, college senior, and a woman who was finally ready to take up exactly as much space in the world as she deserved.

For the first time in my life, I wasn’t going to make myself smaller to fit someone else’s expectations. I was going to stand tall in the fullness of who I was, and that felt like the most revolutionary act of all.