“You’re not a random person. Neither is Karter. I trust you both. And honestly, this entire family has been closed off and secretive, but everybody seems to know our business. I keep running into people who know more about the house and the shop and the garden than I do.” I sighed. “Circe had her reasons for the way she did things, but I have mine.”

Frustration swelled in me. This wasn’t just about the Heart. It was about not wanting to start every new relationship with a lie. “Keeping it a secret doesn’t keep me safe. You saw that yourself.” I pulled out my phone. “And I’m gonna tell Karter. We can all go together and maybe we can figure out what to do with it.”

“No, you can’t do that,” Marie said. “You can’t show him. It’s too dangerous—it’s your responsibility and yours alone.”

I stepped away from her. “If I stay here and run the shop, if me and Karter stay friends, if you and me—”

Marie’s eyes lit up. “If you and me what?”

“If we want to see where this goes, then I don’t want to keep secrets.”

“I’m not asking you to keep secrets. I’m asking you to be selective about who you share certain things with.”

I almost laughed. “Are you serious right now? That’s literally the definition of keeping secrets. I have had to lie to everybody, even to myself, just to exist. I’m sick of lying and hiding.”

“You think I don’t know about burdens? About hiding?” Marie asked, her voice tight. “You think I don’t know the damage secrets can do or what it feels like to have to leave everyone behind because of them?” She looked away.

I hadn’t meant to hurt her, but it felt like I’d hit a nerve. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset. Maybe if I can share this with you and with Karter, we won’t have to be alone with our secrets. None of us get left behind if we’re in it together.”

She closed the gap between us in half a blink. The smell of her perfume, her warm breath on my cheek, it was almost too much to handle. I tilted my chin up so that our lips nearly touched. I wondered how that would feel, what her kiss would taste like.

“I’ll look at whatever it is you want to show me,” she said softly.

“Whatever I want to show you?”

She chuckled. “The Heart.”

Heat rose in my face. “Right.”

She brushed past me and I followed her out to the car, where Nyx was waiting to take us back to the house. I sent Karter a text asking him to meet us there. I slid into the back seat of the car and Marie crawled in beside me—scooted right up to me, her leg resting against mine. My problem was going to be focusing on literally anything other than her.

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 25