Not lingering.
Not taking.
Just seeing me.
Dylan seemed to understand too much.
That was another problem.
He stepped closer, but not too close. His gaze dropped to my hand, then lifted to my face.
“You can face them,” he said.
I swallowed.
His voice lowered. “You’re brave, Destiny. One of the bravest girls I’ve ever known.”
My eyes burned again.
“I don’t feel brave.”
“Brave girls usually don’t.”
Then he did something so quick I almost thought I imagined it.
He bent and pressed his mouth to the top of my head.
Not my lips.
Not my cheek.
My hair.
A kiss so gentle it should not have changed anything.
It changed everything.
Heat moved through me so fast I forgot pain for one impossible second. Not desire exactly, or not only that. Something stranger. Bigger. Like the world, which had been spinning broken and wild all night, suddenly clicked one tiny piece into place.
Destiny.
The name whispered through me, but this time it didn’t sound like a curse.
It sounded like a door opening.
Dylan straightened and stepped back.
Regan’s eyes were wide.
Edge’s face had gone unreadable.
Tarak looked at Dylan like he had just watched a man strike a match inside a room full of gas.
Dylan knew it too.
His jaw tightened.
“I’ll be outside,” he said.
