Fuck.
“It’s fine. It’s…it’s fine. I’m fine, just…just go to sleep,” I muttered, half my attention on keeping those tears at bay. I would have saidanythingfor a moment alone, but…
March let go. “I can’t. I can’t go to sleep knowing you’re mad at me.” He stepped back. The cold returned. “I’ll make it up to you. Tell me how—just don’t be mad.”
I shook my head, blinked my eyes a million times. Thankfully the tears were gone, and… “I’m…I’m not.” I really wasn’t.
How in the Everstill?How was I not mad anymore, just like that?!
“Ora,” he whispered, like he didn’t believe me—but I meant it. As much as it shockedme,too, I meant it.
“I’m not mad anymore,” I repeated, both for myself and for him.
A blink, and March nodded, hands fisted at his sides, looking like he was standing on needles. Time’s Teeth, he didnotwant to stand there and do this right now, so obvious to see.
I appreciated it that he did it anyway even more, because that was exactly what I’d needed to hear since last night, even if I hadn’t realized it.
“I’m not mad, Heartling. I’m fine.” Or at least I wasbecomingfine. Right there in the hallway.
“Happy to hear it,” March said, and stepped to the side. “I’ll let you get to it then.”
I wanted to leave, walk up the hallway, turned the corner, disappear. I was already breathing so much easier now that we cleared that out, and Iwantedto walk away, leave it at that. In fact, if I took a little walk now like I’d planned, I had no doubt in my mind that I’d return to my room and fall asleep right away.
The storm inside my chest had eased. It was no longer raging.
But then…he was sitting alone in the hallway,whispered the voices in my head.He was sitting alone, waiting.
I swallowed hard. “How did you know I’d come out?”
Because he hadn’t knocked. I was awake all this time. He hadn’t knocked and he hadn’t made a single sound out here—I would have heard.
“I didn’t,” March said, chin raised as he looked down at me, his eyes saying much more than his words.
He hadn’t.
A second ticked by.
“Well? Aren’t you leaving?”
Aren’t you leaving, Ora?
“Actually, I think I’m going to just stay in. It’s late,” I said, despite my better judgment.
March nodded. Looked at me. “Good idea.”
My mouth opened again—will you join me?
The question remained inside me, too scared to come out still. Terrified.
I spun around and went to my room, feeling both wide awake and defeated. Desperate.
“You know, it’s the last night we’re in The Ever,” March said from behind me just as I reached for the handle of my door. I stopped, held my breath. “If you want some company…”
His voice trailed off. He didn’t ask, only offered.
My bottom lip was between my teeth to kill the smile that was trying to stretch on my face. I grabbed the handle and pushed the door open. Stepped aside and looked at him. Tried not to die of embarrassment when I said, “Come on in.”
He strode over to me eagerly. “After you.”
