I left. In the corridor, I took a right, past the nurses’ station and to the stairwell. Let the metal door thud shut behind me, its echo bouncing along the walls like a fever dream. My hands shook when I pulled out my phone.
A text from Finn.
You okay?
Was I?
Rooftop in ten?
Tay will understand.
I didn’t wait for a reply, already moving. Devon had been my plan, and now that was ripped from me, brutal and clear. It burned. But threaded through it was the flicker of something else—hope, the ground tilting toward something I couldn’t quite picture yet.
Changing tides.
NINETEEN
FINN
TheNo Accesssign glared like another rule I’d broken. I pushed past the labeled door and kept going—up, and up. Not as hard as I’d pushed during the blackout, when a cooler with two tiny blood bags had bumped my hip with each step, but my heart still beat out a fast, nervous rhythm behind my ribs.
Wind needled through the flimsy material of my scrubs when I emerged onto the rooftop. Even the T-shirt I wore underneath couldn’t protect me—Jesse’s, borrowed less than two hours ago that now felt like a lifetime.
“I saw you with Dr. Maddox last night. Please explain yourself.”
I shook off Novak’s voice and focused on Jesse. A few feet away, he stood with one hand on the railing, holding himself straight against the skyline. Face pale. Jaw tight, although his mouth tugged up at the sight of me, just a little. Somewhere below, a siren wound itself thin.
“Remember the first time we came up here?” he asked.
“Not exactly the kind of conversation you forget, yeah.” I stepped up next to him, elbows on cold metal. The city threw a gray shine at us, clouds snagging on skyscrapers. “First timeI had to clarify that yes, I tend to people’s bodies. But not like that.”
He gave a half-laugh snatched up by the breeze. “I remember my top sticking to my back—hot sun and all. Now it’s almost winter.”
Almost time for attending applications to open.
I rolled my lower lip between my teeth and met his eyes—tired around the corners, but there was something bright underneath, alert. That first time, he’d been barely more than a stranger. This was… God, it couldn’t be more different.
“You okay?” I asked, close to a whisper.
He frowned as if the question hadn’t occurred to him. “Define okay.”
The cold climbed higher, sharp in the back of my throat. “You tried to take the fall for me.”
“So did you.” His tone was soft, calm, and Jesus, I wanted to reach for him—didn’t, though.Professionals. Even if it killed me.
“I have most of my residency left to recover from this.” From us. “Almost five years. You?” My voice came out thin. “For you, it’s now.”
A beat passed while he watched me, his face still in a way I couldn’t read. “She gave me a choice,” he said then. “Novak.”
I tasted bile. “A choice?”
“Devon or you.”
Right. Of course. I swallowed around shards of glass stuck in my throat. “Well, that’s simple. Devon’s your dream—you’re not throwing that away. Not for me.”
Something cracked in his face—a hairline fracture. “I chose you.”
My brain just…skipped. Like a flat stone on water, like the ones kids had thrown that day by the lake, laughing as theyegged each other on. It took a moment for my voice to work. “Youwhat?”
