I couldn’t make out the words.
Didn’t matter.
I closed my eyes.
For the first time since the fire, I let myself imagine something beyond punishment.
A ranch hidden under stars.
A beach I didn’t deserve.
Nursing school maybe still waiting somewhere beyond the smoke.
A fresh start.
A man with dark eyes who had found me bleeding in the desert and kept my worst secrets to himself.
Destiny.
My name floated up from somewhere deep inside me.
Still heavy.
Still dangerous.
But maybe not only a curse.
Maybe a warning.
Maybe a promise.
Maybe a thing I would have to learn how to carry without burning everything I touched.
Doc adjusted the IV, and cool saline slid into my vein.
Regan sat beside me, my hand in hers.
Edge stood at the window, watching the dark like he could threaten dawn into giving us more time.
Tarak leaned against the wall, haunted but here.
Still here.
All of them here.
For me.
I breathed in.
I breathed out.
And when the next tear slipped free, I didn’t apologize for it.
The next hour came to me in pieces.
Pain first.
Always pain.
