He shakes his head. “More like one-fifty, two hundred.”
“Before the bond.” My chest tightens, bittersweet.
His rough palm glides over my chest to my heart. “That’s worth it, too.”
My vision clouds, and he pulls me close, snuggling me against his chest where his heart beats.
“You cold, yet?” he asks. Steam still sizzles from his skin.
“Why does my breath come out like a puff of white in here and yours doesn’t?”
He shrugs.
“Do you think your anatomy’s human on the inside?” I ask, pressing my ear against his chest. Hearing the strong beat of his heart.
“Great. Less than twenty-four hours, and you’re ready to dissect me,” he grumbles.
I giggle, looking up and socking him lightly on the shoulder. “No, silly. But I’m trying to figure out how this works. Howwework.”
“Of course you are.”
That’s when I hear it. A tiny hum, like a whine.
Ash stills.
“What is that?” I whisper.
His face goes hard, finger pressed to his lips.
“Almost like an insect. But too mechanical.”
He nods.
I feel curiosity. Apprehension. Then, something unsettling, like my stomach knotting.
“Ash?”
My throat tightens. Then, my eyes follow his, catching motion near the window.
“Oh my God.”
That’s when it breaks all at once.
A wave of fear like I’ve never experienced.
Chapter
Twenty-One
ASH
The hum fractures.
Not gone… changed.
It crawls through the cabin’s bones, the air turning metallic, sharp as lightning before a strike.
Josephine stiffens beneath my arm, her breath catching in the hollow between my ribs. The bond still thrums between us. But its warmth has thinned—replaced by a low vibration that isn’t ours.
