The five who were never meant to love me
"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?"
"Because telling you meant admitting I'd known, in some form, for nine years, and done nothing but watch and wait and keep my distance," Damon said. "It meant admitting that every time I pulled away from you as you got older, every time I called you Miss Hale instead of your name, it wasn't because I didn't care. It was because I was terrified of exactly this. Of you finding out what you were, and everything that would come hunting for you because of it."
Aurora felt something in her chest loosen slightly, understanding shifting into place alongside years of confusion about why the man who used to carry her on his shoulders had turned so cold, so