“Why?” What he just said was beautiful. I can’t believe he regrets it. “What do you have to lose if you say what you want to say?”

Hyde is suddenly fascinated with pulling a bit of leather from the frame of his quiver.

“Hyde?” I prompt.

“I don’t know how to act around you sometimes,” he says, winding the leather around his finger.

“Sometimes?”

“Alone,” he says. “When we’re alone.”

“I intimidate you?”

He lifts his head. “Completely.” His eyes hold steady on my face. “I don’t want to ruin my chance to know you, Brooke. That’s why. I don’t want to ruin it by saying the wrong things.”

My stomach does a somersault.

Up until this second everything felt normal. We were just two sentries, passing the time with conversation. But now he is no longer just Hyde. He is Hyde, who says he wants to know me, which feels so much more profound than to get to know me. Hyde, who asks me how I’m doing without Liv and talks about magic like it’s in your eyes, not in the world.

I search for it now. I search for magic in his blue eyes.

I don’t see it, but what I do see is just as surprising.

There is hope in Hyde’s eyes, and it’s real and honest and so different from the physical hunger I’m accustomed to seeing in the gazes of men.

I lick my lips, choosing my next words with care. “You do know me, Hyde.”

I am blatantly fishing for more.

No. I’m not fishing. He is on the line, and I’m reeling him in.

“True.” Hyde blinks, his smile wobbling. “I meant know you better.”

It’s the exact answer I expected. Exactly what I wanted to hear.

“You haven’t lost your chance.” I lean closer to him. “How can you lose a chance if you haven’t even taken it?”

He holds perfectly still for a long moment. Then he inclines his head a little to the side, bringing his face closer to mine. His blue eyes drop to my mouth. We’re close enough that I can see every fine hair on his jaw. This is my chance to retreat, but I don’t.

A delicious spell has fallen over me. I want this. And I’m moving on. This is what it means to move on.

I feel Hyde’s hand cradle the back of my head, but I need no encouragement to draw closer.

Our lips meet and hold, both of us stiff with awkwardness for an instant. Then Hyde’s lips part and his tongue slides, velvet soft, against mine.

Desire seeps through my limbs like warm honey as we find our way, shifting closer.