His forehead dips, almost touching mine, stopping just short like he’s afraid that if he leans all the way in, this will disappear.
I brush my thumb lightly along his cheek. “I’m here.”
His exhale is quiet. Heavy. Deeper than relief.
When his eyes open again, there’s a difference in them. Still controlled, still him, but the edge of everything that almost broke through hasn’t fully retreated.
My knees give out before I can stop them, the shaking finally catching up with everything else at once.
“Hey…” Zane is there instantly, catching me before I hit the ground, his arm bracing around me, holding me upright as my body tries to fold in on itself. “I’ve got you.”
I let myself lean into it.
Just long enough to not completely come apart.
Ryder moves at the same time. His jacket is off before I fully register it, heavy fabric settling around my shoulders, wrapping me in warmth that smells like leather and smoke and him.
Safe.
The word slips in quietly, without permission.
I don’t question it.
Between them, they keep me standing, or something close to it. Zane takes most of my weight, while Ryder stays close, one hand firm at my shoulder like he’s making sure I stay exactly where he can reach me.
Finn pushes off the wall with a quiet grunt and falls into step like bleeding is a minor inconvenience.
“Group outing,” he mutters. “Love this for us.”
A weak, shaky breath escapes me that almost feels like a laugh. “Shut up.”
“Can’t,” he says. “It’s my whole personality.”
That helps more than it should.
We move toward the door, toward the light. Each step feels slow, heavy, like walking through a thickness rather than air, but they don’t let me stop. They don’t let me fall.
The atmosphere shrouding us shifts as we reach the opening, cooler, cleaner, brushing against my face like the first real breath I’ve taken in hours.
Maybe longer.
I lean into it.
Into them.
Into the fragile, unbelievable reality that I’m not in that room anymore.
That I made it out.
That they came for me.
All of them.
Together.
And as they carry me into the open air, the world finally starts to feel like something I might survive.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
