“So how do we prove it was them?” Trey asks.
“We don’t.” Locke shakes his head. “Silas’s father would bury any accusation before it got off the ground.”
“But it means we’re not safe here anymore,” Beckett says quietly. “Not like we thought.”
“So what do we do?”
The question hangs. Everyone exchanges those silent looks—the communication they’ve built over years that I’m only starting to read.
“Nova.” Vaelor’s voice is gentle. “Until we figure this out—you should sleep with one of us.”
“Your room’s kind of gone anyway,” Rane adds.
“Not to mention you slept through a raging fire,” Trey says.
Locke’s head snaps toward him. “She what?”
“Slept through it. The whole thing.” Trey shakes his head. “Flames three feet from her bed and she didn’t move. Eyes fluttered open like she’d just taken a nap.”
“No burns,” Vaelor adds quietly. “No smoke damage. Nothing.”
Kyron’s frown deepens. “That’s not possible.”
“And yet.”Beckett’s voice is soft.
They’re all looking at me now. I don’t have answers for them.
“Sleeping beauty,” Rane offers with a weak grin, trying to cut the tension.
“Ha ha.”
But I’m not really annoyed. I’m too tired. Too wrung out from everything—the date, the kiss, the fire, the realization that someone wants me gone badly enough to burn me alive.
The night winds down slowly. Food gets eaten. Plates get cleared. Conversations trail off into yawns. One by one, they drift toward the stairs—Rane first, then Kyron, then the others.
Until it’s just me and Vaelor.
He’s at the sink, washing dishes like it’s any other night. Water running, soap suds, the quiet clink of plates.
I get up. Cross the kitchen. Stand beside him.
“Thank you,” I say quietly.
He doesn’t look up. “For what?”
“For saving me. For running into a burning room. For—” My voice catches. “All of it.”
Now he turns. Those hazel eyes, warm and steady.
“Anytime, Nova.”
I take a breath.
“Can I stay with you tonight?”
The smile that spreads across his face is slow. Real. He dries his hands on the towel and pulls me into a hug, and I let him—let myself sink into his chest, feel his arms wrap around me, solid and warm and safe.
And then I’m crying.
