It won’t.
But I tighten it anyway.
Her movement behind me is small, but it cuts through the air like a blade—the soft scuff of bare feet on the wood, the nearly silent inhale she doesn’t know she makes when she thinks she’s invisible.
“Damien,” she says.
A question.
A tether.
A plea.
I don’t turn.
I can’t.
Because if I do, I’ll cage her tighter, crush her under the weight of whatever this is that’s pushing through my skin like it wants out.
She steps closer, drawn to me the way she always is, even when she knows she shouldn’t be.
Her hands slide around my waist, fingers brushing over the fabric of my shirt, hesitant but seeking. Her cheek pressesbetween my shoulder blades like she’s trying to hold me together, or trying to stop something behind me from getting in.
Her heartbeat is too fast. I know she feels mine too—a war drum hammering against my spine, irregular, relentless, too loud for someone who’s supposed to be in control.
“You didn’t sleep,” she says softly.
No, I didn’t.
I’ve been chasing ghosts through network lines, tearing open every backdoor, every hidden port, every feed, every vulnerability I’ve ever patched. I’ve been digging through the dark places on the grid where he likes to hide, where he likes to watch.
I’ve been looking for him.
And he’s been looking back.
She’s too warm against me.
I’m not made for warm things.
I burn through them.
I carve the softness out of them until all that’s left is the part that flinches, the part that obeys, the part that stays even when it shouldn’t.
“Damien,” she breathes, tugging gently at my waist. “Come back.”
I slide my hand over hers, covering her cold fingers with mine.
Mine aren’t cold.
They’ve been clenched too long, blood simmering beneath the surface like something feral pacing behind a locked door.
I peel her hand free and turn.
Her lashes flutter as she tilts her chin up, drawn by instinct or fear or both. There’s a bruise at the base of her throat where I kissed her too hard earlier—a dark bloom against pale skin, a reminder I needed her to carry for me.
Her eyes are wide.
Not scared but waiting.
