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For a second, I can’t speak. Not just because he came, but because Düren isn’t next door, because he crossed half the Reach and walked straight into the place I spent half my life trying to escape.

For me.

“Why?”

Ciaran just looks at me before shaking his head. “Fuck, you really don’t get it, do you?”

“Ciaran—”

“You think this is about your heart?”

Heat creeps into my face. “That’s not⁠—”

“Bullshit.” The word lands so fast I blink. “You disappeared. One minute you were there, and the next nobody could find you. I checked your feed. Called you. Then Adrian said he saw you being dragged onto a ship. I tore through those fucking trees looking for you. I flew across the Reach to find you. You think I would’ve done that because you’re medically inconvenient?”

“Ciaran.”

“Mouse.” He leans forward and his fingers curl beneath my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Your sister was there. Cassian. Lucan. Marius. Rafe. Dad. We found out where you were and everybody got on a shuttle.” Something like a smile crosses his face. “Damaris tried too. Lucan practically had to sit on him to stop him from following us into those tunnels.” His thumb brushes my jaw. “He wasn’t about to let his boyfriend walk into a firefight.”

Despite everything, I huff out a laugh in relief. Lucan is more clever than I gave him credit for, apparently.

“He was waiting when we got back. Spent two days trying to get upstairs to see you. I think he threatened half the staff. But me?” His expression turns serious again. “I would’ve been on that shuttle if you’d disappeared from the other side of the Reach, from another planet, from the middle of nowhere. I would’ve gone anyway. Because you don’t disappear on me, mouse. I would’ve crossed every fucking planet in existence. Do you understand?”

“No.” The word comes out broken, and the tears spill over, blurring my vision as I look away.

Embarrassment burns through me, but the more I fight it, the worse it gets. My chest tightens and my ribs protest with every shaky breath.

His thumb brushes beneath my eye, catching a tear. “And yet here you are.”

I just stare at him, at the stubborn certainty in his face. This man who crossed half the Reach to walk straight into the place I spent half my life trying to escape.

Something in my chest aches.

“Shut up,” I whisper, tilting my head back until Ciaran catches my mouth.

The kiss deepens fast, his hand tightening in my hair as his tongue brushes mine. Our tongues curl together while relief and exhaustion crash together somewhere between us, and I barely remember how to breathe.

A low rumble rises out of Ciaran as he catches my bottom lip between his teeth and kisses me again, slower this time, his fingers working through my hair and lingering there while his forehead rests against mine. “I missed you so fucking much. I was so scared.” He looks up, dark eyes fierce. “When I saw the shuttle leave...I thought you were gone. I couldn’t fucking believe we didn’t catch her before she took you.”

Only then do I notice the dark circles beneath his eyes, the exhaustion he isn’t even trying to hide anymore, and the way his hair keeps falling across his forehead like he’s been dragging his hands through it for days.

He looks like he hasn’t slept since I disappeared.

I lift a hand to push his hair back from his forehead. Ciaran goes completely still beneath my touch before closing his eyes briefly. Then he presses one last kiss against the corner of my mouth and eases me carefully against his side, one arm wrapping around my shoulders as he shifts us both closer toward the edge of the bed.

The enormous windows beside us come fully into view. And I genuinely forget how to breathe.

The estate sprawls across the hills below us, dark glass and black stone reflecting the morning light while water winds through the grounds and guards patrol the terraces below.

Beyond it, Sero rises gold beneath the haze, stretching farther than I can even take in from here.

“Good Light.” I stare out across the estate. “You grew up here?”

Ciaran hums, his fingers idly tracing circles around my shoulders as though the estate, the city, and half the Reach belong to him. The annoying thing is that he isn’t wrong.

My gaze catches on the landing platform carved into the hillside below. “Wait. Did you carry me all the way up from down there?”

“Mouse.” His arm tightens around my shoulders. “You keep nearly dying. I’m starting to think carrying you around afterward is part of the relationship.”