Emma's stomach tightened further at the vulnerability in his words. “You didn’t hurt me.”
“I could have.”
Emma leaned into his touch, her own hand rising to rest against his chest. His heart pounded beneath her palm, a constant beat, steady as the ocean tide. Despite her reservations about opening up to him again, she couldn't let him think of himself as a monster.
“Even when you’re terrifying, even when you look like you might tear the world apart… you’ve never made me feel unsafe.” She brushed her thumb over the rock hard muscle. “You protected me, Zach. Saved my life. I trust you to protect me.”
I trust you to protect my body, just not my heart.The thought cut like a knife.
Something flickered in his eyes. Pain. Wonder.
Disbelief.
“How are you not afraid of me?”
“Because I see you,” Emma said simply, pushing aside her reservations in her need to reassure him. “Not the weapon. Notthe guardian. The man who makes terrible coffee. Who runs ten miles every morning like he’s being chased. Who protects his brothers fiercely and pretends he doesn’t care about anyone but would clearly die for the people he loves.”
He dropped his forehead to rest against hers. They breathed the same air, hearts beating in synchronization. The cave hummed around them; that subtle vibration from before now emanated from everywhere.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Zach murmured. “In my life. In this danger. You should run as far from me as possible.”
“I should.” Emma’s hand slid up to his neck, fingers curling into the short hair at his nape as she ignored the voice in her head telling her to step back, to protect her own heart, to run. “Too bad I’m terrible at doing what I should.”
His lips quirked in the shadow of a smile before his gaze dropped to her mouth, and the smile faded into something darker. More intense.
They drew together like magnets. Inevitable. Natural.
Her eyes fluttered closed as the distance between them shrank to nothing?—
A sudden surge of water crashed through a narrow channel in the rocks behind them.
They sprang back, hearts pounding. Emma stumbled backward, tripping on the uneven ground. Zach’s hand shot out to steady her, then slid away like she burned him.
The tide had shifted. Water flooded through gaps in the lower sections of the cave floor, churning and foaming. The sound echoed off the stone walls, filling the space that had been so quiet moments before.
She pressed her hand to her chest, trying to slow her racing pulse. Her lips tingled with the kiss that hadn’t happened. Her whole body electrified like a live wire.
Zach stood rigid, staring at the water like it offended him. His jaw clenched so tight that the muscle jumped.
“We should—” Emma started.
“Yeah,” his voice was rough. “Storm tide’s coming in. The cave will probably flood with the surge.”
The carved spiral had stopped glowing, faded back to ordinary stone. They moved toward the opening in unspoken agreement, neither quite able to look at the other.
The way the cave had responded to them. Individually, or both together?
At the entrance, Emma paused and looked back. The symbols on the walls weren’t visible, but she knew they were there. Ancient. Powerful. Connected to everything that was happening.
She pulled the coin from her pocket and studied it one more time before tucking it safely away.
“I think I should talk to Ana-Luz again.”
Zach nodded. He stood silhouetted against the late afternoon sky, his expression unreadable. When he spoke, his voice held a note of something she hadn’t heard before. Trust.
“We’ll go together.”
That simple statement settled into her chest, warm and solid.We. Not him protecting her. Not her following his lead.Together.
