It’s still not the sanctuary, but I’m still safe.
I turn my head and find Wes beside me, still asleep. His hand is loose around mine, dark lashes resting against his cheeks. There’s a faint glow under his skin—like sunlight caught just beneath the surface.
My chest does something complicated looking at him.
Behind me, I feel Stellan. His arm is still around me, holding me tighter than before. His breath is warm against my shoulder, even and measured in sleep.
It’s just the three of us.
The realization settles slowly. The others must have left at some point during the night—given us space, maybe, or gone to rest somewhere else. But Wes and Stellan stayed.
I don’t want to move. Don’t want to break whatever this moment is.
My body hums with energy I haven’t felt in so long. The Ether pulses softly around me, threading between the three of us like silk. It doesn’t feel desperate or wild or like it’s tearing me apart. It feels full. Content.
Alive.
I take a slow breath, and even that feels good. My lungs expand without pain, my ribs don’t ache, and for the first time since the Void, I feel like my body belongs to me again.
Wes stirs first, his fingers tightening slightly around mine. His eyes open slowly—dark and warm—and when he sees me looking at him, a slow smile curves his mouth.
“You’re awake.”
“I think so,” I whisper. My voice is still rough, but it doesn’t hurt to speak.
He shifts closer, just slightly, and brushes a strand of hair back from my face. The touch is gentle, deliberate, and it sparks something—warmth spreading where his fingers graze my cheek.
Something tightens in my chest. Hunger. But not the empty, desperate kind I’ve carried for what feels like forever. This is different. This is warm. This wants something I never thought I’d want again.
“How do you feel?” His thumb traces the line of my jaw, feather-light.
“Better.” I swallow, my pulse picking up. “Better than I have in a long time.”
Behind me, Stellan shifts. I feel the exact moment he wakes—the way his body tenses slightly, then relaxes when he realizes where heis. His arm flexes against my ribs, and I feel his breath catch when he registers how close we are.
I feel something else too—the hard length of him pressing against my lower back. Heat floods through me, pooling low in my belly.
I turn my head just enough to look at him over my shoulder. Gray eyes meet mine, unreadable and intense.
“You’re both still here,” I say quietly. My voice comes out breathier than I intended.
Stellan’s voice is low, controlled. “Where else would we be?”
The Ether hums louder between us. I feel it pulling—reaching for connection.
Wes’s hand slides from my jaw to the back of my neck, warm and grounding. “Bree.”
I look back at him. His eyes are darker now, pupils wide. I can feel his hunger echoing mine—the same pull, the same ache.
I don’t think. Don’t second-guess.
It’s soft at first, tentative, just a brush of lips against lips. But the moment we connect, the Ether flares, hot and bright, and Wes groans low in his throat. His hand tightens at my neck, pulling me closer, and the kiss deepens. His tongue parts my lips, sliding against mine with a hunger that makes my head spin. I moan into his mouth, my hands fisting in his shirt, pulling him as close as I can.
Behind me, Stellan goes completely still. I feel the tension in his body—the instinct to pull away, distance himself, retreat into that careful control he wraps around himself like armor. The bed shifts as he moves to leave, and panic flares in my chest.
“Stay.” Wes’s voice cuts through the haze, rough and commanding. He breaks the kiss, his dark eyes flicking past me to Stellan. “If you want him to.”
I don’t hesitate.
