Theron kept hold of her hand, his thumb resting lightly against her knuckles as if afraid she might vanish the moment he loosened his grip.

"Why?" he asked quietly.

Aveline frowned, not understanding what he meant.

So he added, more gently, "Why are you asking me that?"

"Where are you taking me?" she asked instead.

It was a simple question. It should have been easy to answer. But for Theron, it was not.

He drew in a slow breath and leaned back slightly, his gaze lowering for a moment as if he were weighing something far more fragile than the words themselves.

Because this was not just about shelter. It was about where she would belong.

He had already decided something for her in his heart, but how was he supposed to say it when she still kept so much of herself hidden? If Kael was right, if Aveline really did have something powerful buried inside her, then she was standing on the edge of something far greater than she realized.

He wanted to see her rise. He wanted to see her become everything she was meant to be.

But wanting that was not enough.

Not when she did not trust him enough to tell him what was happening to her.

"And..." Aveline said again, her eyes dropping to her own hands. Her voice thinned with something close to fear. "There is something wrong with me."

Theron’s expression changed at once.

Aveline swallowed hard. She could still feel those strange pulses inside her, those moments when something dark and furious had risen up from within, so intense it had made her feel like she could tear apart anything in front of her. That terrible rush of vengeance. That hunger to destroy.

It had not felt human. It had frightened her more than anything else ever had.

Yes, the creature had been trying to hurt others. Yes, it had to be stopped. She knew that.

But what if that was not the end of it?

What if that same darkness stayed with her? What if one day it turned on someone innocent? Someone she loved?

Someone like... Theron?

Her fingers trembled. She bowed her head before he could see too much.

Theron’s hand tightened around hers. "Aveline..." he said softly, and there was real concern in his voice now. "Look at me."

She could not.

Not at first.

Then his other hand came up, careful and steady, and tilted her chin upward.

"Look at this," he said.

He lifted his finger, and a small flame bloomed above it, delicate and bright, trembling like a candle in the dark.

Aveline stared.

For one stunned moment, she forgot even to breathe.

He had power too.

Her eyes widened as she stared at the tiny light dancing on his fingertip. Cautiously, she reached out and touched it, and flinched when she found it was not hot at all.

It looked like fire. But it did not burn. It was only light, gathered into shape, warm in appearance but not in touch.

"How can it be so cold?" she asked, bewildered. "You can make fire that doesn’t burn?" she whispered.

"Because it is not fire," Theron said. "It is light. I can bend it."

Aveline’s chest tightened. Then she understood. "The light... that lattice..." her voice trembled. "Was that—?"

"That was mine," Theron said, without hesitation. "I had no other way to find you."

Aveline stepped back as if the words had struck her.

The light that had killed Helena... That was him. Theron had been the one who used it to find her.

And Helena... Helena had died because of that, leaving Hamilton an orphan.

Aveline stumbled back, as if the truth had struck her physically.

She hoped Theron would find her. Theron had tried to reach her. Theron had meant to find her. And Helena had paid the price. Hamilton had paid the price.

Her breath caught sharply.

So she was responsible. Helena died because she had wanted him to find her.

The thought came crashing down on her all at once, cruel and dizzying. Her pulse hammered wildly in her throat, and her head began to ache beneath the weight of it.

She could barely think.

Could barely stand.

"Aveline, come with me, and I’ll help you learn."

Theron reached for her, but this time she instinctively stepped back.

The movement was small. Barely a breath. Yet it struck him harder than any outright refusal.

His brows drew together. "Aveline?"

He could feel the distance she was placing between them now, deliberate and careful, as though she had suddenly begun to see him through different eyes. Not as the man who had just confessed himself to her, but as someone else entirely.

Someone dangerous.

Aveline’s eyes landed on Hamilton now sitting beside her, his golden eyes solely on her. She didn’t want to ask Theron about Helena. This pudgy adorable creature somehow understood her. She didn’t want it to hate Theron.

"If I go with you," she asked, her voice tight, "what will happen to Hamilton?"

That was what she cared about.

Not the power he had revealed. Not the history bleeding open between them. Not even the ache still trembling in her chest from the truth about Helena.

Hamilton.

Theron looked at the little creature curled beside her with a protectiveness that made something in Theron go taut.

She wanted to trust him. She could feel that much. But after what she had just learned, after hearing that he had killed innocents in his search for her, she needed to know whether he still had any softness left in him at all.

She needed to know whether he would show even a fraction of concern for this helpless little orphan before she let herself step into whatever world he was offering her.

Because if he saw Hamilton as nothing more than a monster, then what sort of people was she walking toward?

The same kind who caged creatures simply because they looked wrong?

The same kind who decided, without mercy, what deserved to live?

And if that was the world Theron belonged to...

What did that make her parents? Was that the kind of world that had taken them too?

Too many questions fought for space inside her head, each one sharper than the last. She needed one clear answer, one simple sign that he could understand what Hamilton meant to her.

Theron’s jaw tightened.

Of all the things she had to ask, this.

After everything... for this hideous creature...

Those beasts. Those creatures. The ones that had caused havoc, injuries, and fear...

And this one was sitting beside her as if it belonged there, as if it were some harmless little pet.

He had never seen one breathe fire before. He had no idea where she had found it and what else it could do, what damage it would cause.

His blood began to simmer.

He opened his mouth to answer, but the words did not come at once.

"This monster... doesn’t have a place beside you, Aveline."