“I have no doubt,” he smirked.
Lena tipped her head toward Zach. “Hey, Zach. Before I forget—thanks.”
Zach’s brows lifted a fraction. “For what?”
“For training me. For not letting me quit when it sucked. For giving me the tools to face Chester.”
“You held your own,” he said, like it was nothing.
She glowed like he had handed her a medal. “Still. Thanks.”
He stared into the fire a beat longer than necessary, then grunted, “Since the immediate threat has passed, we can scale back the daily PT.”
Relief hit her so hard she almost laughed. “Oh, my god. Thank you.”
Zach’s mouth twitched. “You’ll just join the family sessions instead.”
Lena blinked. “Family sessions.”
“Family training,” he clarified. “Sundays. 5 am.”
The words didn’t land at first. Then they did. “Five?” she croaked. “As in… before the sun exists?”
A cough came from David’s direction that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
Lena turned her head slowly toward David, eyes narrowed. “Whose dumb idea was 5 am?”
Zach didn’t even look at David. “His.”
David lifted his hands, completely unrepentant. “In my defense, sunrise builds character. Welcome to the family.”
She stared at him. “I am reconsidering this relationship.”
He grinned. “Too late, Spark. You said you loved me.”
Nick choked on his beer. Zach smirked. Even Logan laughed.
Lena groaned and dropped her head onto David’s shoulder. “I’m going to murder you at 4:59,” she muttered, and the circle broke into laughter like the fire itself had sparked it.
Kate picked that moment to launch into an intentionally terrible version ofEscape (The Piña Colada Song), dragging Marguerite up by the hands while Nick sheepishly followed, grinning like a crazy man on a death march.
Lena laughed with everyone else, as one badly rendered song followed another, until Kate slipped away and appeared next to her. “Holding up okay?”
Lena smiled without looking away from the fire. “You psychic now?”
“Yes, actually. But I don’t need empathy to know what it feels like when the adrenaline wears off.”
Kate sank down beside her. They sat in companionable silence for a few beats; the kind shared by people who’ve both survived something ugly.
“Chester’s gone,” Lena said, the words strange in her mouth. “Really gone. Arrested. Out of my space. Out of my head… mostly.”
Kate nodded. “It doesn’t feel the way you thought it would, does it?”
Lena exhaled. “No. I thought I’d feel victorious. Free. But all I feel is… hollow. Like I spent so long bracing for impact, I don’t know what to do with normal.”
Kate leaned over and bumped her shoulder. “Normal isn’t the end. It’s just the part where you breathe again.”
Lena blinked back the sudden sting in her eyes.
