“I know what it’s like to lose a loved one,” he says. The ache isn’t just in his voice—it’s splashed clear across his features, burrowing deep into his eyes. He clears his husky throat and says, “Get her home, son. Take care of her.”

“I will, sir,” Kael says. His gaze drops to me as he quietly adds, “Always.” He then guides my speechless self away from the security guard, his hand dropping from my back only to entwine our fingers together.

We don’t say anything as we hurry hand in hand through the dark park, but we do pick up our pace the farther we travel. Kael’s fake story may have touched a nerve in the security guard, but without me having issued a Spoken command, it won’t take long before the man realizes he should have at least asked how the two of us snuck in. And how we evaded his cameras.

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Kael murmurs, apparently thinking along the same lines.

He’s right. And besides, I have more pressing things crowding my mind right now.

“You kissed me.”

So perhaps it’s not more pressing, per se. But I’m still in shock from what just happened.

Kael gives me a sideways glance as we hurry along, his brows rising. “I’d hardly call that a kiss, princess.”

“Twice. You kissed me twice, Kael.”

He steers me around a wide puddle since I’m too busy looking at him to watch where I’m placing my feet. I’m so mentally unbalanced right now that I’m barely even limping, my entire body having descended into confusion.

“I had to think quickly,” Kael says. “You looked like you were about to Speak.”

“I was.”

It’s only once we step through the park’s exit and are hidden in the shadows of the hulking clown overhead that Kael brings us to a stop and turns me to face him.

“It’s great that you have so much control now,” he says, “that you understand your ability more than ever before.”

I’m not so sure I agree with him, the mirror maze again coming to mind, but I don’t interrupt to say so—not when I’m so curious to hear his next words.

“But when it can be avoided, it’s always better not to use our abilities,” Kael continues. “Especially against other people. We don’t know what Speaking does to them long-term, whether there will be unknown psychological complications down the track. Imagine if you were to suddenly realize that there were blanks in your memory, or that your actions at a point in time seemed out of character. Those kinds of things can cause … problems.”

I consider his words and resist the urge to remind him that if he’d carried out his promise to train me, I’d probably already know this. Instead, I nod my understanding and say, “So the only way you could think of to keep us both from ending up in the back of a police car tonight was to act like I was your grieving girlfriend?”