“We will,” he promises.
The room lightens again. Not fixed, not safe, but less oppressive.
She rinses her empty mug and sets it in the sink. “I need a nap.”
I arch a brow. “Want company?”
“Nice try,” she says. “You’re both in timeout until tonight. I need my brain on straight.”
“I’m offended,” I mutter.
“You’ll live,” she shoots back.
Silas steps in and cups her cheek, thumb brushing her skin. “We’ll pick you up at eight.”
“Together,” I add.
“Scandalous,” she says.
She leans into his hand for a second, then rises on her toes and presses a quick kiss to my jaw. It feels like being chosen even though I know she’s choosing both of us.
“I’m terrified,” she admits.
“Good,” Silas says, voice soft but sure. “That means it matters.”
I rest my hand at the small of her back, steady. “Terrified and relieved,” she adds quietly.
The words land in my chest with a weight that feels right.
“Us too,” I tell her.
For the first time since last night, it doesn't feel like we’re standing at the edge of a cliff waiting to fall.
It feels like we might actually be building something instead.
Chapter Twenty-Four
TALON
I wakeup with my jaw tight, my throat dry, and a bruise forming on my ego the size of Florida.
It takes me a solid ten seconds to remember why I feel like I lost a fight.
Penelope.
Silas.
Gideon.
The way they walked her out like they were her personal bodyguards and I was the idiot kid who couldn’t be trusted not to break a lamp.
And underneath all that?
My mom.
Her voice from last night is still stuck in my head like gum on my shoe.
“She knows too much. We buried that once.”
