And somehow, despite myself, I’m smiling.
Just a little.
It doesn’t take us long to get home, and the moment I unlock the door, Sir Sassafras makes a sound like he’s trying to announce our arrival to the world.
I set the carrier down in the living room, open the door, and step back like I’m releasing a wild animal—which, honestly, I might be.
He emerges like royalty disembarking from a private jet, moving with a cocky rhythm that says missing a limb doesn’t mean missing authority.
I sigh and lower myself onto the couch, easing the weight off my prosthetic until the socket bites less. My therapist would say to “acknowledge, not judge.”
I acknowledge that it sucks. There.Growth.
He pads over to the couch next to me, and with the casual contempt of a monarch, hops up beside me and stares at me like I’ve become his most interesting subject.
Did I miss some new cat-owner etiquette? I’ve never had a pet before. Is there a protocol I am supposed to be following?
“Umm, do you want the house tour?” I ask, the sentence sounding ridiculous in my own ears. “We’re sitting on my couch, this is where we will watch trashy reality TV that we will never tellanyonewe watch.”
We move through the apartment, stopping in every doorway, where I give him a few minutes to inspect each room.
At the end of the circuit, I take my spot on the couch, and he plants himself beside me and settles into the sunbeam where he’s hopefully decided his new home is acceptable.
“By the way, we’re changing your name,” I warn him. “I am not going to call you Sir Sasafrass the Sassy Ass Cat, that’s a mouthful.”
He flicks his tail at me like he’s annoyed I’m interrupting him while he’s sunbathing.
“Maybe we could do Captain Tripod, there’s also Lord Hop-a-Lot. If you don’t like either of those, we can also do Sir Missing-But-Mighty.”
I swear I see the corner of his mouth twitch. I can almost hear him saying,try harder, human.
“Okay, how about Lieutenant Lopsided?” I go to pet his insanely soft fur. “Final offer.”
He shifts, pressing all twenty pounds of him into my thigh, and my chest loosens.
When I left my apartment this morning, I never imagined I’d be coming back with a cat. The first few months after the accident, and after the way I ended things with Celeste, this place felt like a museum of half-lived moments. I’ve been moving through the rooms like a guest in my own life, careful not to disturb anything that might erase her memory.
The apartment is less like a place to remember her by, and more of a place I can make new memories.
“Yeah, okay,” I let out a breath as I put my hands up in surrender. “You win,Sir Sassafrass.”
The sound he makes is somewhere between a purr and a snort. Which, in my brief time of knowing him, probably meansobviously.
3
Celeste
The green room hums with a living, breathing energy that crawls under my skin and refuses to settle. The air smells like sweat, leather, and the faint sting of ozone from the fog machines bleeding through the vents. The low thrum of bass from the opening bands rolls beneath my feet, vibrating through the floor, seeping into my bones.
It should be exhilarating.
Itusedto be exhilarating.
This is the opening night of Umbra’s world tour. We’ve been on the road before playing in smaller venues and doing state tours, which have taught us how to survive on tour, but this is different. We’re on tour for an entire year, playing in stadiums, this time with international dates, playing in forty cities. It’s the kind of scale that makes everything we did before look like rehearsal. Tonight is the culmination of years I spent grindingthrough bars, sleepless nights on the road, and a chance encounter with Rowan.
The roar from the crowd rolls down the service corridors like a wave, making the lights tremble and my thoughts dissolve this far backstage. The sound should set my pulse racing. Every seat in the stadium is full, and we sold out the entire tour within the first few days of public sale.
This feels like the start of an era, not only for how we fought and bled to get here, but because Jamie’s daughter is finally earthside. The idea that our accomplishments and victories now have a new generation, and that makes the celebration feel doubled.
