“But I also… I want to change.” My hand drifts to my side. “Tonight proved Ican.”
She looks away.
“I don’t expect you to believe me,” I continue. “I only want you toseeme.”
She meets my eyes. The silence between us hums.
Then she walks past me, to the kitchen table, sets her compad down. She doesn’t touch it. She just stands there.
I watch her. My ribs ache. My mind races.
She turns back to me: “If you can’t protect us from your world, you said you’ll walk away.”
I nod.
She exhales. “Don’t make me ask when you’ll do it.”
We’re quiet again. But this silence has more weight than any words.
I sit back. I close my eyes. The city hums outside. The rooftop loot, the tunnels, the blood and adrenaline—they feel heavy. But this—right now—this moment with her—is lighter, fragile, but maybe real.
I open my eyes.
“Let’s try tomorrow,” I say. “Together.”
She nods.
And in the darkness, I vow to hold on.
CHAPTER 27
KAIRO
I’ve gotten good at swallowing my instincts.
You don’t survive being the ex of a mob heir turned kindergarten sweetheart without learning how to silence the alarms screaming in your head. But tonight, the silence tastes sour. Thick. Like the air before a storm hits.
Jav’s limping.
He thinks he’s hiding it—walking just a touch slower, favoring one side, always moving through doorways like he’s careful not to disturb the furniture. But I notice. I’ve always noticed.
The man wears secrets like a second skin. And I used to be fluent in every wrinkle, every scar.
Now?
Now I don’t know what language we’re speaking anymore.
Ben’s asleep. Passed out mid-sentence during a debate about whether cupcakes or waffles would win in an interstellar food war. He voted for waffles. Jav said cupcakes have range. I didn’t vote.
I just listened.
Watching them. Memorizing the sound of them laughing together.
Now I’m in the kitchen, arms crossed, back against the counter. The hum of the refrigerator buzzes in rhythm with the static crawling up my spine. Jav’s at the table, sipping stim-brew he doesn’t even pretend to like.
He hasn’t looked at me in ten minutes.
That’s how I know he’s hiding something.
