“It was an accident. No, I mean…” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “It wasn’t an accident. I didn’t like him, though. I didn’t want to kiss him. It was … a siren compulsion thing. But almost as soon as I kissed him, I stopped. I didn’t want to hurt you. And I’ll never do it again.”

“It was a siren thing?” Alex asked.

“Yeah,” Gemma said sheepishly. “That sounds like a cop-out. But for, like, five seconds, I wasn’t in control of my body. This weird … urge took over me, and I kissed this guy. But then I took back control of myself, and that was it. It meant nothing. I never would’ve done it if I wasn’t a siren. But I thought I should tell you. And I’ll understand if you hate me.”

“Hate you?” Alex actually laughed at that. “Gemma, I could never hate you.”

“Oh, I’m sure you could.” She forced a smile at him and was surprised to find tears brimming in her eyes. “There are things I could do that would make anyone hate me.”

“No, Gemma, listen to me.” He moved to face her completely, so he had to kneel in front of her, and he took both her hands in his. “There’s nothing you can ever do that would make me stop caring about you.”

“Alex, you don’t know…” She trailed off, because if she kept talking, she would cry, and she didn’t want to cry.

“I have known you for years,” Alex said. “You’ve always been kind, considerate, smart, determined, and stubborn. You have a good heart, and you’d never let anybody change you. That’s part of why I fell in love with you.”

“What if I can’t stop it, though?” Gemma asked, wiping at her eyes. “What if the sirens are making me evil, and I can’t control it?”

“You can,” Alex insisted. “You’re too strong and too stubborn. You can fight this. We will beat them. Together. I promise you that, Gemma.”

“You really think so?”

He nodded. “Yes, of course I do.”

“And you’ve really fallen in love with me?” Gemma asked, and Alex smiled at that.

“You think I would’ve spent a week searching for you if I didn’t?” he asked.

She laughed a little. “No, I don’t suppose you would.”

“I love you, Gemma,” he said softly.

“I love you, too.”

She leaned forward, kissing him fully on the mouth, and wondered how much longer she’d be able to do that.

27. Logic

TWENTY-SEVEN

Logic