it made me feel safe.
Completely safe.
A crack of thunder rolled across the mountains.
Neither of us moved.
Neither of us looked away.
Then slowly?—
carefully—
his hand lifted toward my face again.
Like he wanted to touch me but wasn’t fully sure he deserved to.
That nearly broke my heart all by itself.
I closed the distance first.
His breath caught instantly when my forehead rested lightly against his chest.
For one second?—
just one?—
everything became still.
No Hollow Men.
No Shepherd.
No secrets.
Just his heartbeat beneath my cheek.
And his arms slowly wrapping around me like letting go would kill him.
67
BLAZE
I’d held women before.
Kissed them.
Slept beside them.
Protected them.
But nothing?—
nothing—
had ever felt like this.
Flick standing against my chest somehow quieted parts of me that had been at war for years.
