I spent all the next day in a strange kind of limbo out of space and time.

It was a little odd being in the safe house. Mom and Ray scattered the ashes of Calen's grimoire the night before, and though there was some sense of anxiety as we wondered if he would simply rewind, all we could do was go back to what Dante had said before: He hadn't done it yet. We couldn't plan for a time loop, so it was best to simply do what we could now.

It turned out that pretty much all we could do was make some soup and watch a decent chunk of the massive stack of DVDs stashed in various cabinets around the house.

We managed to put together some pretty good deer chili from some frozen meat and mixed veggies stocked in the kitchen, and we worked our way through the entire Back to the Future series over the course of the day. Dante had never seen it before, and he was fascinated by both the half-science involved in the time travel dialogue and the completely inaccurate guess at what 2015 would be like.

Grandma continued her knitting, and though she tried to teach me, Dante was much better at it. I didn't know if he was trying to get on her good side on purpose or if he was just good at handicrafts, but she seemed to warm up to him a little... At least as much as a block of ice warms up from the freezer to the fridge. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

Mom and Ray had some catch up time on their own, and I didn't really want to ask about their plans. Grandma seemed to tolerate Dante, but she didn't ask any personal questions... probably on purpose. As long as he was polite, though, she didn't openly complain.

It was a little hard for her to complain when we'd brought her here to keep her safe, after all.

At the end of the night, Dante and I wound up sitting in our bedroom watching The Princess Bride, just as promised. I wasn't quite sure what he thought of the movie by the end, though he certainly seemed to enjoy Inigo's quest to avenge his father more than any other part of the plot.

Honestly, I agreed with him. Inigo was my favorite character out of the whole cast.

We both sat with our backs against the headboard, propped up on pillows, discarded bowls of popcorn on either bedside table. Both of us had been living in pajamas the past couple of days, and in a way it felt a bit like an extended sleepover, but Dante very quickly brought us back to reality as the credits rolled.

"I think I feel strong enough to travel home tomorrow," he said, stretching. "And I need to. The Council will be worried."

"Are you sure it's safe?" My brow furrowed as I turned towards him. "Can't you just tell them you're here and taken care of?"

"I could, but it would be a bit difficult to get a message through the Veil. Magical communications don't work particularly well on this side of it, and there aren't exactly cell towers on the Sylvan side." Dante didn't seem too bothered by it.

I was worried, though. Even though he seemed confident in his ability to travel, I really wasn't sure how much was bravado and how much was genuine healing. Also, on a very personal and slightly whiny level, I enjoyed spending time with him. I didn't want it to end.

"I don't want you to go," I said, almost unconsciously.

A gentle half-smile lit up his face, all his features softening as he reached out to me, his warm hand cupping my jaw as his thumb traced gently along my cheek.

"I know we haven't spent much extended personal time together before now, but... I think I know you well enough to say that I like you. I... want you to know that. I want you to consider that," Dante said carefully.

My mouth went dry. It was like I could feel myself starting to clam up, losing all sense of what to say and how to say it. As much as I never wanted Calen to touch me again, that was one thing that was much easier with him. I didn't feel nervous because, if we were soul mates, I probably wouldn't fuck it up.

With Dante, it felt much more serious.

"Tell me that kiss last night wasn't a mistake," he muttered. "Please."

"It wasn't," I said immediately. I'd made a lot of bad decisions recently, and I was more than willing to admit that. Kissing Dante wasn't one of them.

I didn't know how to tell him what he meant to me. I was scared to make things too serious, but what I felt was serious. It felt like letting loose the lock on something that I'd pushed very, very far down for the last year since I met him. The more time I spent with him, the more I understood how wonderful he was, and the more I wanted him in my life.

"Sunday," he said softly, thumb still gently caressing my cheek, "I'm not your soul mate. I know that, and I know you've been waiting on a soul mate."

I didn't move. I couldn't bring myself to move.

I was terrified I might say the wrong thing.

With Calen, there was a raw, powerful energy that drew us together. It was lust and fire and something deep in our chests that called to each other, adrenaline and a rush of curiosity. Dante was the dark figure that called to me, asked me to chase secrets and live dangerously, to leave the world behind, to chase anything and everything I'd ever wanted.

But Dante... Dante was more. He always had been.

He was safety. He was laughter and kindness and gentle touches. His grumpy temperament was endearing, and his protective tendencies made me want to curl into his arms and never leave. I knew how he took his tea and what kinds of books he liked. I knew his world and his family because he'd dared to open up to me in ways that Calen never had.

I knew Dante.

Calen was desire, but Dante was dimension.

"I don't want you to be," I finally said.

Dante pursed his lips, his shoulders slumping.

"I... I understand—" he began, shifting to move away from me, but I caught his hand, panic rising in my chest.

"No, I mean—" I paused, trying to find the right words. "I don't want you to be somebody else. I want you to be you. Just like you are. I really... I adore you, Dante. I have for a long time, and—"

I cut off with a squeak as he hugged me, burying his face against my neck. I held him close, but I was afraid to say anything else.

I wanted to be with Dante as a real partner, but I wasn't sure if it was too soon to say something about that. Maybe it was the neurodivergence, but I wanted him to know that I was serious about this. He didn't have to respond now. He didn't even have to be ready to make a commitment. I just didn't want him to worry.

"Please don't do that to me again," he breathed, pulling away just enough to look at me. "That was a horrible emotional swing in one very fast sentence."

"Sorry!" I squeaked. "Sorry, sorry, I wasn't really thinking about the phrasing!"

Dante laughed, shaking his head, a bright smile on his face. It made me laugh, too, and soon we were both shaking and smiling. Our voices probably carried into the rest of the cabin, and I really didn't care.

"I feel safe with you," I said, holding on a little tighter.

"I'm glad to hear it." His fingers gently traced across my back, rubbing gentle circles over my t-shirt. I couldn't explain how incredibly relieving it was to be near him, to know I could trust him.

The worst part of figuring out all this was that I'd had to text Calen to keep up appearances. I told him I was running a fever and didn't want to get him sick, and that seemed to be enough of an excuse to keep him away. I told him I'd meet him when I was better, though, and that was something I didn't think I could get out of.

"I'm supposed to meet Calen again in a few days," I said quietly. "I don't want to go."

I never wanted to be around him again, truth be told, but I was still trying to work out the best plan of action moving forward. I knew he was the Hourglass now, but I didn't know how to plan to go up against someone with time manipulation magic. Maybe the best I could do was to go along with it for now, to gather information... but every second with him was a risk.

Firstly, he might figure out I was onto him and understood his magic. Secondly, he clearly wanted to sleep with me, and I had absolutely no intention of letting that happen. If I was still swayed by whatever kind of obsessive infatuation I'd had before, then sure, I would have given in... and, unfortunately, he knew that. Pushing back too much would also cause suspicion.

"Then don't," Dante insisted, hands on my shoulders. "Don't put yourself in danger to please him."

"I'm still having soul mate visions about him, though. There's something else there," I fumbled, wringing my hands. "There's something I'm missing." I truly believed that much.

There was something else, and I wasn't sure what.

"Then let me come with you— or if you don't want that, let me ask the Council for help." Dante's blue eyes met mine, and I almost agreed.

Almost.

He was still healing. A wound with a silver knife was serious for a Sylvan, and it was a rough wound. Dante really and truly had almost died, and it had only been three days. He wasn't back to full health yet.

"You can't come with me. You're not strong enough to fight him yet, not based on what I saw before. You're still healing." I was firm on that much. "Even you said it would be another week."

Dante scowled, but he didn't say anything. He knew I was right.

"Go home, just... be careful about it," I finally sighed.

"Can I get a goodbye kiss first?" he murmured, moving a little closer.

I was too shy to respond verbally. Instead, I moved in to press my lips against his, hoping that he could feel what I wanted to say instead. I'd never been good at flirting, and this time, I didn't have the security of the soul mate bond or the recklessness of the heightened lust brought on by that same bond. It was just Dante and I, on our own, making this decision.

There was some power in that, I thought.