“I’m—” I exhaled. “A chartweaver.”
Torin blinked once. Twice. “A what?”
So I told him.
Everything.
The glowing threads rising off the chart. Seeing future paths. Touching them and shifting their strength. The brooch gaining a new stone. My gran’s notes. The women’s reactions.
I expected him to look confused or skeptical.
But instead… he lookedawed.
“You can see…our fates?” he murmured.
“Yes.”
“And help people choose the right one?”
“In a way, yes.”
“And you helped that woman yesterday?”
“Greta,” I said. “Widow. Two kids. She’s been drowning. But I saw her path so clearly. She just needed someone to help her trust it. So, aye, I think I helped her.”
Torin blew out a slow breath, running a hand through his hair. “Liora … that’s incredible.”
“I’m terrified,” I whispered.
He shook his head. “You’re made for this. If anyone should be guiding people, it’s someone who sees the good in them by default.”
I stared at him, undone. “You really think that?”
“I don’t think it,” he said steadily. “Iknowit.”
Something seemed to unlock in me, loosen, and shift. Like I’d been holding on to this idea of myself for so long that I’d just assumed it to be true. And now, this incredible man was sitting across from me, telling me the kind of truths that I desperately needed to hear.
Bracken nudged my elbow again. I stroked his fur absentmindedly, blinking rapidly.
“It seems like you belong with those women and in the Order. In Loren Brae. This power, it only showed up once you were here, right?”
“Aye.”
“Then don’t you think it’s a sign? A good one?”
I took a sip of my wine, trying to steady myself. “I just …don’t want to screw it up.”
“You won’t.”
“How do you know? I literally put a truth spell on your head.”
“I mean, you didn’t direct it at me. From my understanding, I interrupted it, didn’t I?”
I shrugged one shoulder, noncommittal, and he laughed.
“You can’t fully take the blame on that one, darling.”
My insides did a funny thing when he called medarlingin that tone.