“Here’s the thing,” I declare quietly, relaxing in my chair as I look at each of them. “I’m asking all of this now because once I decide to stay, I won’t half-ass it.”
Their attention locks in like a sniper in a scope.
“I enjoy the twisted way you orbit me,” I continue. “The way you think I don’t notice the things you’ve been doing. I like the way you protect me, like you’ve already written me into your lives, regardless of whether I want to be here.”
“I don’t understand why this doesn’t scare you,” Jace comments, shaking his head in genuine confusion. “Or freak you out at the very least. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to change your mind or run you off… But I can’t wrapmy mindaround your easy acceptance.”
“It doesn’t scare me,” I admit, trying to put this declaration to rest, although I feel like they’re going to keep asking me for… a while, as if it’s too good to be true. Once they know more about my career path, it will make sense. “And that should scareyou...”
“Whatdoesscare you?” Kieran’s voice is quiet but curious.
I look down at my hands. At the calm within them. The certainty.
“How badly I want to keep you,” I confess, glancing up to meet his steady gaze. “All three of you.”
The silence that follows isn’t awkward.
It’s… irreverent.
Kieran exhales as if he had been holding his breath for my answer, praying I wouldn’t say something that would send him over the edge.
“We’re not letting you go,” he reminds me. “You’re keeping us.”
Iknow she’s dangerous the second she says my name without realizing the impact she has on us.
Eris asks the type of questions you only ask someone you already feel tied to. Someone you’ve allowed access. Someone you’re checking for structural integrity before you lean any further. Trust any deeper.
And now she’s sitting in our kitchen, Kieran’s shirt draping over her like a short dress. The creamy skin of her bare legs is on display, and her posture is relaxed. But her fingers tighten around the fork in her right hand like she’s wielding a weapon. Her left hand holds my equilibrium, and she doesn’t hesitate to flip my world upside down.
She doesn’t pretend she’s overwhelmed to put us at ease.
Nor does she brace for disaster…
“I like the way you orbit me.”
It lands harder than any threat I’ve ever received. Cleaner than panic. Louder than fear.
She likes it.
She likes us.
I’ve built systems with less data than that. Burned entire contingencies to the ground with weaker confirmation. And now my body refuses to do anything except catalog.
Her posture is open. Not defensive. Her tone isn’t fishing; it’s measuring.
The deliberate way she applies curiosity to the vital points of a conversation, as if it’s a blade she knows how to use.
She isn’t asking because she’s confused…
Eris is asking because she wants to know how far this goes. She wants clarification.
And I am one misstep away from handing her the map to everything she’s ever wanted.
I stand before I can stop myself.
Jace glances up, alert but not surprised. Kieran doesn’t look away from her mouth, like he’s already memorizing how it forms words meant to undo us all.
I cross the kitchen, grab a clean glass, and fill it with water I don’t drink. The window across the room becomes a placeholder for restraint, a reminder that I’m supposed to be the one who doesn’t move first. I lose myself in the gray-scale of the warehouse district, but my mental wandering doesn’t last long.
