“I know,” Finn says.“But I want you to.”
I look away again.“Finn—”
“Don’t say you’re fine,” he cuts in gently.“Say anything except that.”
I squeeze my eyes shut.
If I tell him what happened...
If I tell any of them...
They’ll react.
Hard.
Loud.
Uncontrolled.
Kael will go silent and dangerous.
Atlas will go violent.
Finn...Finn might fall apart in the kindest way possible.
I can’t handle that.
Not when I’m barely holding myself together.
“I just need to work,” I say finally.“Let me...just work.”
Finn opens his mouth—maybe to argue, maybe to ask more—but Kael’s voice cuts across the room.
“Finn!Let her breathe.”
I flinch.Finn flinches.Even Kael looks pissed at himself for how sharp that came out.
He steps closer—controlled, deliberate, every movement calculated.He stops a foot away from me, hands on his hips, jaw tight.
“You’re not fine,” Kael says.
“I don’t need all of you hovering—”
“You do.”
He doesn’t raise his voice.Doesn’t need to.“And you’re not getting rid of us.”
Something cracks inside my chest at that.Something fragile and stubborn and stupid.
“I’m not your responsibility,” I whisper.
“Yes,” Kael says, “you are.”
Finn nods.“Yes.”
Atlas’s voice rumbles from behind them.“Yeah.”
I look between the three of them—Kael unblinking, Finn earnest, Atlas intense—and a strange, suffocating mix of emotions floods my body.
