I can’t help the foolish hope that keeps blossoming inside me. It’s a desperate kind of wanting that feels as essential as breathing. But is it my choice? Am I drawn to him because of what I saw on my other path, or because it’s really how I feel here and now? The worries have been twisting together inside me since Bram showed up in Midwood, making me feel as hopelessly tangled as the box of silver chains Gran used to keep on her nightstand table. I would sit for hours trying to separate them, but only managed to knot them more tightly together.

But now, seeing him join our group only after Norah nudged him in my direction, casts a heavy shadow over me, and all my hope shrivels. Dies. The idea of us together is laughable to Bram. He’s here, not of his own free will, but as a favor to Norah. And my free will is all tangled up in emotions that don’t belong to me.

Fate is mocking me. It will be an exquisite kind of torture to be around Bram, but not with him.

Hatred for Latham pulses through me. It’s fire in my veins. A bitter poison that coats my tongue. He’s snatched the happiness from my past, present, and future.

Bram touches my arm, opens his mouth to say something, but then we’re interrupted by a loud voice behind us.

“Did I hear you guys say you need a Watcher?”

I spin around and my heart jumps into my throat. A tall apprentice in a green cloak stands in front of me. He has a messy mop of ginger hair and his nose and cheeks are dusted with cinnamon freckles. He was on my other path. I’ve been looking for him since I got here.

I grasp for his name, but before I can find it, he sticks out his hand.

“Talon,” he says, and I feel the name click into place in my mind. The rightness of it. The familiarity.

When Tessa introduced me to her friends, I assumed Talon would be among them. But maybe he was fated to be on my path, not hers. But how can that be when I remember her introducing me to him before and not the other way around?

My mind is spinning so fast, I can’t find the words to respond.

Tessa leans across me to take Talon’s hand. “I’m Tessa,” she says. “And this is Jacey and Bram. The frozen one beside you is Saskia.”

Talon puffs out his chest and tugs on the collar of his cloak. “No worries. I’m used to rendering people speechless.”

A sudden warmth floods my chest; it’s the same instant affection I felt upon meeting Tessa. I squeeze his elbow gently. “I’m so glad you’re here.”