"You can't be with me," he murmured, his breath warm against her ear, "because if you do, then the whole world will hunt you."
Her entire body stilled.
"And I don't want you to be hunted."
The moment she heard those words—"I don't want you to be hunted"—her body trembled.
A sharp, involuntary shudder ran through her, something deep, something visceral.
It wasn't from fear.
It wasn't from anger.
It was something worse.
Something she couldn't place.
Because she had always known.
She had known from the very start that Maya and Astron had tried to hide her. That whenever Maya felt herself slipping, she would force control back, suppressing her, pushing her down.
She had known that they were afraid of what she was.
Afraid of what would happen if she was revealed.
And she had hated it.
She had resented being treated like something that needed to be contained.
Like something dangerous.
But hearing it like this—
Hearing it from him—
