Silence. Long enough to feel like a touch. Then…
“Yes,” he said quietly. “More than you realize.”
Her breath hitched.
The fire crackled louder.
Somewhere deep in the trees, a night bird called, startling them both back into safer thoughts. Poppy reached for her bedroll, breaking the moment.
“I should rest,” she murmured.
Mingxi nodded, shifting his gaze to the perimeter. “I’ll keep watch.”
“You always do,” she whispered as she lay down.
He didn’t answer, but she felt him looking at her. Not with possession, lust, or protectiveness alone. It was something else. Something warm and restrained and aching at the edges.
As her eyes drifted closed, Poppy realized for the first time in years that she was falling asleep unafraid. Because Mingxi was there. And because Mingxi being there meant something she wasn’t ready to name.
Not yet.
Chapter 56
An uneventful morning, apart from a spectacular sunrise, made the morning pass quickly, leading Poppy to the conclusion that it was going to be a good day. She quickly discovered she was mistaken.
The land sloped downward into a clearing carved by a roaring river. It wasn’t wide, but it was ferocious, whitewater smashing itself against slick stone as if trying to escape its own path.
Poppy stared at it with mute betrayal.
“That isn’t a river,” she said. “It’s a tantrum.”
Mingxi stepped beside her, hands clasped calmly behind his back. “It is shallow.”
“It is thrashing.”
“Only at the surface.”
“That is exactly the part I have to walk through!”
His lips twitched—so faint she might’ve imagined it—and he stepped forward onto the first stone. He turned back, extending his hand.
“Poppy.”
She eyed his hand, the river, and then him again. “You’re very confident.”
“Yes.”
“That does not comfort me.”
“It should.”
But she placed her hand in his anyway. His grip was warm, steady, firm in a way that steadied the world. He guided her from one stone to the next, body aligned with hers, every shift of balance anticipated before she realized she might fall. Halfway across, she slipped. Mingxi’s arm locked around her waist instantly, drawing her in, his breath brushing her cheek.
“I have you,” he murmured.
Which she found absurdly reassuring.
When they reached the far bank, she let go too quickly. He did not comment, but something softened in his eyes. They continued downward, through a meadow brushed in sunlight. Wildflowers she’d never seenshimmered silver blue in the breeze. Poppy slowed without realizing, her steps absorbing the world with a reverence she didn’t know she had.
