''I get it,'' he said, ''the sun so loved the moon...''
His voice trailed off. We both knew the story. We knew it all too well. He was looking at me thoughtfully. I, however, turned away.
''What if,'' I began, ''the sun didn't want to die for the m...
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When I reopened my eyes, Tucker was staring at me.
"What happened? Did it work? Whatever it was didn't take long."
His questions and words were rushed, the nerves behind them were clear. Both of us knew that we needed it to work. If it didn't, I doubted we could stop my father on our own. Tucker didn't even know what I'd done- he only knew that it was life or death.
"It worked," I whispered back and then quieter, "it has to."
"What did you do? What did you see?"
I glanced at him, tied with his hands behind my back, exuding a scary sense of calm that I knew was not real. His family was in danger, we were in danger. There was no way he felt as calm as he looked. But, I remembered his father's words. My tether was someone who exhibited the same values I had- the same strength.
The boy next to me had lived up to that expectation. Now that I realized it wasn't some supernatural bond that made me fall in love with him, it had just been him. The words I'd heard in his mind stuck out to me. I was in the middle of it before I'd known what had happened. When I'd seen how much he'd sacrificed for his brothers, I think I was done for.
I'm not sure if there was a specific moment when I started loving him- just that there'd really been no choice in the matter. He'd taken it away by being... him. And even if there was a choice, I still would've made the same one.
In the moonlight shining through the canopy of the trees, the gold in his eyes seemed to spark with the same fire I felt growing in my belly. The two of us were so similar and I'd never realized it. He had anger, fear, and resolve shining and mixing within his expression. We both knew that tonight was where something had to change. I had to face my father, possibly for the last time, but I realized that my earlier fear- if I would ever return- was ridiculous. As long as Tucker kept looking at me the way he was looking at me then, there was no place I could not return from. There was no place he would not follow me and drag me out kicking and screaming.
"I love you," I blurted.
His dark eyebrows jumped up his forehead. It seemed important that he know it. I hadn't said it before, and what better time than when I was about to be sacrificed in an ancient ritual by my father? Probably any other time ever.
"I-" his voice cracked a little, "well, I love you too."
Despite the situation, his eyes held a comical look in them as he regarded me. "So, was that what you were off learning in your mystical-daemon realm? That you love me?"
"Er, no," I admitted, "I saw Thomas, your father."
Tucker was about to respond, but he didn't have the chance to. My father stepped in front of the two of us and I knew that we were slowly running out of time and I needed to buy us some. What I'd done with Thomas' help would take longer to come to fruition. So I tried to distract him, the only way I knew how: by being an annoying little shit. I cleared my throat intentionally and Johnathan looked down at me, Sophia lingering by his side. My head still felt the remnants of her latest spell.
