Van’s head came up, and the hunk of steak on the end of his fork stopped midway to his mouth. “What’s wrong?” He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut for a second. “I am ignoring you. I am sorry. This situation with your father—”

“No, it’s not that.” She smiled and hoped he understood how she felt about him, at least to some degree. “I was just lost in my own thoughts.”

“About what?”

She laughed softly and shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Tell me.” He gave her a mock-serious expression. “We are supposed to be getting to know one another.”

She sucked in a breath and dug deep for some courage. “I was just thinking that…” She swallowed. “I don’t think I know what real love is. Or how to recognize it. Or what it feels like. What I mean is, I haven’t really had any examples of it, you know?”

He stared back at her, eyes rounded, mouth agape. A little like a deer in headlights. Or a dragon in headlights. If headlights had that effect on dragons. Whatever, he clearly wasn’t ready to delve into that topic.

She shrugged one shoulder and gave another easy laugh to lighten the mood. “Way too deep for dinner conversation, huh? Sorry, just me musing. As you were.”

“Not too deep.” He caught her hand as she picked up her fork. “If you have never seen real love, then you must trust your gut to know what it is.”

She let go of her fork. “That’s hard for me to do. My life has been one disappointment after another. Enough of that and you have a hard time trusting anything.”

He twined his fingers with hers. “But you must start somewhere.”

She nodded, content to look into his eyes. “I’m just not sure I know how.”

His head dipped toward hers, and their mouths met halfway. The kiss was soft and gentle but lingering. To her, he tasted like a future just out of reach, a future she wanted so much she was afraid of how hurt she would be when it vanished. But in that moment, she decided to believe it was a future she could have.

That was trusting in something, wasn’t it?

Their mouths parted, but their heads stayed close together.

“You can trust in me,” he whispered.

She smiled. “I will try. And you can trust me.” She leaned back. “Even though I wasn’t very trustworthy when I got here.”

“That is all forgotten.” He went back to his steak. “Let’s eat and enjoy this night.”

She picked up her spoon, ready to dig into her soup. “I already am.”

But as she was lifting a bite of gooey cheese to her mouth, he didn’t seem quite ready to move on to lighter topics. “Can you control any supernatural with your powers?”

She ate the spoonful of cheesy, oniony goodness anyway. She nodded while she chewed.

His expression turned skeptical. “Any supernatural?”

“Yep. Or human.” She took a drink of her water. “Even you.”

“Show me.”

She laughed, then realized he was serious. “I don’t want to. It’s not something I like to demonstrate.”

“I understand, but I want to know what you are capable of.” A mischievous glint sparkled in his eyes. “Or perhaps it is all just a big bluff.”

She knew what he was doing. And it was working. “Fine. Give me one of your fries.”

“I will gladly give you one of my fries, but I feel no compulsion to do so.”

“That’s because I haven’t used my gifts yet. I just wanted to say it in my normal voice first, so you could hear the difference.”

“All right. Compel me.”

She opened herself up to the power inside her, threading it through her voice. “Give me a French fry.”

His expression went slack, and his hand jerked once, like he was fighting the magic, but then he reached down, picked up a fry, and held it out to her. There was a little surprise in his gaze.

“Thank you.” She took the fry and released him from her hold.

He slumped back, blinking at her. “That was impressive. You are very powerful.”

“It’s more of a curse than a gift.” She sighed and ate her ill-gotten gain. It was a good fry. “Especially because the downside is that anyone who’s under my spell for any length of time begins to lose themselves.”

“What does that mean? How do they lose themselves?”

“My magic causes the mind to deteriorate. They’ll forget the day, the year, where they live. Their name. Their family. Their purpose.” She frowned. “It’s what Will-o’-the-Wisps are known for, leading people off into the moors, and then those people are never heard from again. It’s because their minds are wiped clean, and they wander until they’re lost forever.”

She stared at her soup. “It’s not a heritage I’m proud of.”

“But the future is yours to change.”

“True.” She ate another spoonful while she thought about that.

They focused on the food for a few more minutes, then he paused again. “Why don’t you just use your ability on your father?”

“If only it was that easy. I tried when I was thirteen. I wanted him to buy me a horse. What thirteen-year-old girl doesn’t have that dream at some point? Anyway, I was just coming into my powers and really understanding them, so I thought it would be a snap to get exactly what I wanted.”

“What happened?”