The most revealing words he’s ever said to me should hit like the lid of a coffin slamming shut. Loud. Final. But they arrive swallowed in a new strain of silence and that’s when I feel a fresh storm simmering behind me.
We’re not alone anymore.
Fuck.
I turn and Jack’s just beyond the hallway arch that separates the bedrooms. With the dog at his feet, he’s in his underwear, a white-knuckled fist pressed to the wall and a welt rising below his rogue eye, like he’s been grinding it hard, trying to make sense of something he wishes he hadn’t heard.
Sol’s behind him.
Calmer.
Maybe.
His gaze flicks between me and Skylar, a rare frown cinching his brow. But there’s empathy there too—he doesn’t need context to understand. Or if he does, he’ll wait.
And he’ll fucking have to. With a dry mouth and heart that’s strangely peaceful, I turn back to Skylar.
He’s still there. Course he is, I’m blocking him, he has nowhere to go. But something’s changed. The fire in him has gone, like he’s been doused in frigid water in the split second I’ve been gone.
Overload.
And I’m expecting it. The sway and stagger. The capitulation from a body and mind that can’t take another fucking thing.
But it’s not me who falls.
It’s not Jack.
It’s Skylar, and as I surge too late to catch him I know I lost him before I met him.
And I’m losing him now.
28SKYLAR
I come to like I’m being wrenched through freezing water. My head pounds, nerves out of sync. I move before I’m conscious and hit a brick wall.
Awarmbrick wall.
Someone’s holding me.
Mal.
I know it before my eyes stutter open. Before his clean air and cedar-wood scent takes over and the foreign emotion I’ve fought so hard to escape settles in for good.
I love him.
Fuck. I blink against the thumping ache in my skull. Dizzy. Nauseous. Blood gritty like wet sand. “No. No—fuck.”
Mal says something, hands catching mine. Tells me I’m safe. That I passed out, but he has me.
No shit.
I don’t need him to tell me that. It’s been a while, but I’ve felt like this before. So many fucking times. Having him with me is weird, though. How many times have I woken up alone on the bathroom floor?
“Skylar.”
No.
“Sky.”
