Page 42 of Sweets and Sycamores
He didn’t.
He spent the rest of the day pondering how to tell Allie the truth. Dom doubted she knew, given her clumsiness with the power and her relentless practice that almost led to a tragedy. He didn’t want to be the one to break her heart, but he couldn’t keep this to himself. She’d trusted him that morning to makethe Assessment, and now he had to trust her with the results. To trust that she wouldn’t hold this against him.
She trusted him.
For years, Dominic thought his heart had healed. He thought he didn’t need anyone to prove that he was trustworthy, but he couldn’t deny the wave of relief that smothered him when Allie said those three words.
Now she waited patiently, knees hugged to her chest, her thick red hair framing her round, freckled face in a mess of tangled curls. Her big hazelnut-colored eyes were warm and kind, and she watched him as if he was fascinating, with a soft smile on her pink lips.
He really,reallyhated this.
“How was lunch with the girls?” he started, intent on putting it off for as long as possible. Allie looked at him as if he’d grown another head. He never asked about her day. But she humored him.
“The food was delicious, and Harper and Tina are really nice. They were worried about some stuff for the wedding next week, but I told them we have everything under control,” she stated with confidence.
We. We have everything under control.
An itching sensation climbed through Dom’s chest, and he coughed to make it go away.
“I doubt this is what you wanted to talk to me about, Mr. R—Dominic.” Allie averted her eyes but smiled, as if she tried his name and liked how it fit on her tongue. That thing tickled his chest again, and he cleared his throat.
“Right.” Dom shifted on the blanket to face the beautiful Witch. “Do you know what I did this morning?” Allie shook her head, her smile fading, and Dom felt like a cold wind had broken through his warm air shield. “It was an Assessment.” He waited to see if Allie knew what he was talking about, but she just staredat him, waiting. “Mages have access to a kind of Reading magic that goes deeper than the average one.”
Allie stiffened, her back straightening away from the tree trunk. “How much deeper?”
“You can Read intentions and the general spirit of a person, right?” She nodded. “More than Reading someone, Mages can perform an Assessment. If the person is a magic wielder, the Assessment gives us access to their power source and nature.” Allie’s eyes grew wide, but she remained silent. Dominic wanted her to ask him a thousand questions about this magic, only so he could delay telling her what he had learned during her Assessment. “We can understand a lot about someone’s power through these deep Readings. The way your magic acts seemed strange to me, ever since that day you overheated the milk.” A corner of her mouth jumped up for the shortest moment. Dominic desperately wanted to turn it into a full smile, but knew he might do the opposite. “I wanted to ask you to let me do it this weekend. But this morning—” Dom sighed.
“I understand,” she said. “And what did you…find?”
She looked at him with fearful anticipation, hoping for good news. Dominic felt a frown taking form on his face, his jaw clenching, hand fisting into the blanket. He had to tell her. He had to be the one to break the sweet, soft heart of a woman just trying to find herself, and hope to hell she wouldn’t hate him for it. The thought gave Dom pause, but hate or not, he couldn’t keep it to himself. Allie had no one besides her coven sisters, and he doubted the good intent of those Witches who’d sent her away instead of helping her.
He had to tell her.
Dom took a deep breath and held her gaze as he said, “There is a seal on your power.”
Chapter 17
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU
Allie’s heart skipped a beat.
“A…seal?”
The powerful Mage looked stricken as soon as the words left her lips. He sighed, reeling in the rage in his eyes that Allie thought was not directed at her.
“A seal is a magic-suppressing technique. It’s quite advanced and meant to dull a wielder’s powers. It is likely the reason why your power is so out of control. Because the seal started to break.” Dominic paused for a moment, that rage slipping and filling his green eyes. “The seal could be the reason you manifested late.”
Allie froze with shock, a thousand questions swarming through her mind.
“Manif—you mean I could have had my power twenty years ago?” she shrieked.
Dominic shook his head.
“Most seals last up to a few years before they start breaking. And when they do, the power has been suppressed for so long that it…”
“Goes crazy.” Allie finished his thought. She could have had her power for a while now, even if still much later than otherWitches. The questions of who had done this to her, when, or how were muffled by one thought.
It was not her fault that she couldn’t control her fire.
