He’s not giving me verbal confirmation, so I read his eyes where the glimmers fade into a cloudy, death-like haze, and his breathing starts breaking too.
Fuck.
“Piece of shit,” I mutter under my breath, guiding his face against my chest.
“You don’t have to talk, okay? Only when you’re ready.”
He nods against me.
“You’re safe. Right here, in this snowed-in car, and no one gets to take this from us.” I kiss him softly, watching the light return to his eyes like a candle finding oxygen.
I get it now, why his mother called him a sparkler. And being allowed to see what she saw feels more intimate than anything I’ve ever known. It awakens something fierce in me. I need to guard that light with everything I have.
His hand disappears under my hoodie, settling on my chest. It calms us both.
“Let’s… let’s forget about everything, okay? My family, your family. Just us tonight.”
“Okay,” I whisper, the word leaving me on a contented sigh.
We’re stuck here. Hidden from a past he’s not ready to face and a future I’m still figuring out. But when the storm clears, I’m sure we’ll find our way home.
Chapter fifty-five
Yosh
Shadows shield me from the burning sun.
Heat. Pressure. The sickening sensation of being lifted off the ground.
“This one’s alive!”
Voices float through the haze, distant, telling me I need to let go.
I don’t.
I hold on tighter.
Hands everywhere. Gripping my arms, my shoulders, prying at my fingers.
A helicopter thunders above us, blades beating in a mechanical rhythm.
Shouting. Urgent. Close to my ear, yet impossibly far away.
“We need to separate them.”
No. No. No.
He’s slipping from my arms.
A face appears above me, someone yelling words I can’t make out. Lips moving, hands pressing down on my chest, myshoulder.
Pain explodes through my body, sharp as a knife and blinding.
Then the movement again. The helicopter grows louder.
The sound fills my skull, rotors tearing the sky apart again and again and again.
Iwake up gasping for air. The weak light of dawn filters through the snow-covered windows, casting a blue-grey glow across the car. A helicopter flies overhead.
