Page 74 of Sweets and Sycamores
“I made a mistake,” he blurted out. “I shouldn’t have let you go. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t care.” Her voice was wobblier than she wanted, but she struggled to tamp down the stinging sensation behind her eyes and nose, the lump in her throat. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
Actually, she did not want to cry at all, because Sam didn’t deserve any more of her tears.
Sam’s head jerked back, his brows furrowing in confusion. Did he expect her to obediently jump into his arms and thank him for saving her from a Sam-less life?
“Why are you being like this?”
“Why am I—” Sizzling hot anger overwhelmed her and quieted all other emotions Sam had stirred inside her. “Youdiscardedme, Sam. As soon as my power manifested, you kicked me out because, and I quote, you ‘won’t make a family with a Witch.’” He flinched. “You knew I had nowhere else to go, but you didn’t care because you were scared of something you couldn’t control.”
“I was not… I am not…” He reached for her again, and Allie backstepped. “Stop running away from me!” Sam shouted, an ugly, desperate sound paired with a crazy look in his bulging blue eyes. His predatory fingers would have grabbed her arm if not for the hand that grasped and bent his wrist at a painful angle before pushing him away with a force backed by magic.
“Dom?” Allie breathed. She traced his arm up to his handsome face, now twisted with wrath and revulsion.
“Don’t touch her,” Dominic growled.
“This is a private conversation,” Sam barked, rubbing his wrist. Dominic took one threatening step toward him, and to his credit, Sam didn’t back away.
“Is it?” he asked, his voice coated with malice. “A private conversation?” This time, Allie noticed his chin slightly tilted her way. She shook her head.
“Of course it is!” Sam bellowed.
“I amnottalking to you.” Dominic didn’t take his eyes off Sam, his back ramrod straight, feet apart, forming a comforting wall between Allie and her stupid past.
She inched closer to him and took his hand shyly, but Dom wasted no time interlacing their fingers together. He squeezed her hand in his strong palm and pulled her closer to him.
“I’ll take that as a no.” Dom took another careful step forward, keeping Allie close to his side. Not behind him. Next to him.
Dominic’s eyes turned to slits and he snarled the words, “It was you.” The wind picked up around them, ruffling wild strands of hair around Sam’s face. Allie’s curls didn’t move. “You’re the one who put the seal on her.”
Allie stopped breathing.
For a long, slow moment that stretched around her like hot glue, she felt like she was underwater and could not breathe. Sam had… He had…
“What?” she mouthed, unsure if any sounds came out.
The man who she had loved with her entire heart, who she had trusted, who hadallegedlyloved her back—he was the reason she went through that hell. He was the reason she endangered the people she cared about, he was the reason she had suffered, he was the reason for her pain, he, he, he…
Warm, calloused skin closed tighter around her fingers as Dom tugged at her hand. He pulled insistently until her side was plastered to his, until her brown eyes met his greens, until he pulled her out of the water.
Allie found enough rage and strength steeped into his eyes that she could borrow some. With every breath, she was letting go of the shock that had taken hold of her. When she moved her eyes to Sam’s, he looked at her as if he was having a heart attack.
“Als—”
“How?” She didn’t stutter. “How?” Allie moved her thumb over Dom’s hand before letting it go, and took a step further. “You don’t have any magic.”
Sam looked anywhere but at her.
“I… I… I do have…magic,” he muttered, scratching his head and taking a step back. Allie took another step toward him.
She felt that power behind her chest rattle, as if it recognized the hand that had suppressed it. It took half a thought for Allie to unspool that power and fill her hands with living fire. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Dom cross his arms across his chest, a wicked expression covering his face.
Sam’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he put more distance between them.
“Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute, Als, let me?—”
“What?” she shouted, walking to him, the comfortable fire crawling up her arms. “Let you what? Live?” That intrinsic Witch hate Allie had never known, that malice her sisters seemed to be born with, blossomed in her chest. For the first time, Allie felt like an authentic Witch. “Why should I?”
