Just for tonight.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD
• • •
Morning comes.
And Cassian is still here.
I don’t move for a while.
Just lie there.
Watching him sleep.
Like an absolute normal person and not at all like someone who has been cataloguing every detail of this boy since he was eight years old.
• • •
He’s still here.
I don’t think he’s ever been here in the morning.
Not like this.
Not with sunlight.
• • •
I should be embarrassed by how much that means to me.
I’m not.
I’ve been embarrassing myself over Cassian for ten years and I’m frankly too tired to keep it up.
Something terrible brought us back together.
Something earth-shattering.
Something that left a hole in my chest so big I can feel the air moving through it.
• • •
And somehow — God help me — I’m breathing easier than I have in two years.
What does that say about me.
I’m still working on that question when he stirs.
Opens his eyes.
Sees me watching him.
• • •
Grins.
