The jalshagar coils down out of my throat.
Not roaring.
Not spiking.
Just… present.
Warm.
Steady.
“I am scared of what I am,” I admit.
“Good,” she says. “So am I. That’s called being human.”
I huff a weak, broken laugh.
“Technically I’m not?—”
“Don’t,” she cuts in. “Do not do the biology dodge right now.”
I close my eyes and lean my forehead against hers.
“They were never going to let me go,” I whisper.
“No,” she agrees. “So we take the leash and set it on fire.”
Trust settles between us.
Not blind.
Not easy.
Earned in the wreckage.
“I should have told you sooner,” I say.
“Yes,” she replies. “You should have.”
“You’re not leaving,” I add quietly.
“No.”
“You’re not running.”
“No.”
“Then this gets worse.”
“Yeah,” she says. “I figured.”
We stand there, holding each other in the humming safehouse, the Alliance’s invisible teeth still sunk into my spine, the Nine still digging toward the bones of a buried war machine under her family’s floor.
For the first time in my life, I am not alone with the truth.
CHAPTER 17
KIMBERLY
