Kyron
I can’t get my body to work right.
This never happens. Never.
But my brain won’t stop, the feelings won’t stop. I’m standing outside the Community Hall like I’ve lost my damn mind.
Maybe I have.
Through the window, Nova’s coming out of the kitchen with Beckett right behind her. They’re both grinning. They look… happy.
She is. I know that.
I also know I owe her a conversation I don’t want to have.
I take a step toward the door.
Stop.
The thing is — I know she didn’t leave. I know what happened. I was there when Zoe told us. I understand the sequence of events.
And still. Every time I think about waking up and finding her gone —
Still.
I shake my head and start to pace again. I can’t help it at this point, and fuck if I care.
It doesn’t matter that how I reacted is wrong. Especially since I’m still reacting that way. Some part of my brain keeps registering that she was there and then she wasn’t. The facts come after. The first thing is always the absence.
I hate it.
I take another step toward the door.
Stop.
“You deciding whether you’re hungry or not?” Rane asks.
He comes around the corner and I will not look at his face. When did he become so fucking perceptive?
“Yeah,” I say. “Something like that.”
He nods. Comes to stand next to me. We both look through the window at Nova.
He doesn’t say anything for a moment.
“So you’ve decided to stop being an asshole and let her explain?”
I grunt.
He laughs. Quiet and genuine. That makes it worse than if he were being cruel. But that’s not Rane.
He reaches over and squeezes my shoulder once.
“I knew you had it in you,” he says.
And then he starts walking toward the door.
“Don’t worry,” he calls, not looking back, already too far for me to stop without making it obvious. “Since you can’t seem to go to her—”
No.
“—I’ll send her to you!”
He disappears inside.
I’m going to kill him. I mean it this time.
If I do anything right now I’ll either make a scene or catch Nova’s attention.
Neither of those are good options.
Maybe I’ll just go chase him through the Community Hall.
Bad idea.
Rane would never let me live that down.
Fuck!
I could run… That’s it. Just turn and go.
That would be even worse.
So I stand here.
Like an idiot.
Because it’s the only thing I can do.
I watch Rane cross the room. Watch him lean down and say something in Nova’s ear. Watch her go still for a second and then look toward the door.
Her eyes find mine immediately.
She always does that. I don’t know how she does that.
I’m not going to think about the shudder that runs through my body when she does.
I watch her say something to Rane. Watch him smile — the slow, satisfied smile of a man who has completely won — and lean down again. She kisses him briefly and then she gets up.
She walks toward the door.
I don’t move.
I don’t breathe.
Oh, this is bad.
I finally get a solid breath in right before she comes out. Try to hold myself together.
I don’t think it worked.
She comes through the door and stops in front of me. Her eyes are too soft and it’s not fair. How can I be upset with her?
Her mouth tilts up and everything melts away. She knows.
I keep forgetting how good she is at that.
“You know he’s impossible, right?” she says.
“Yeah.”
She waits. Doesn’t make it feel like pressure.
I look at the ground. Then at her.
“When we woke up,” I say. “And you were gone…”
She goes still.
“I know what happened,” I say. “I know you didn’t — I know the timeline. I understand what you knew and what you didn’t.” I stop. “That’s not the point.”
“Okay,” she says.
“The point is that before I knew anything else — before Zoe, before any of it made sense — I felt it. Like you left.” I meet her eyes. “I know that’s not what it was. I’m still—” I gesture at myself. “Working on that part.”
“Hey, talk to me,” she says.
I look at her. The words are there — they’ve been there for a while, I think — but getting them out is something else entirely.
Nova doesn’t say anything.
“I didn’t want it. I wanted to just—” I shake my head.
The noise from inside the Community Hall feels very far away.
Her fingers wrap around mine and there’s only her.
“Hey, let’s walk,” she says.
I exhale and look up at the Community Hall.
I meet her eyes.
“Let’s go.”
The Hollow is quiet at this hour. Just the sounds of people winding down — distant voices, a door closing somewhere.
She doesn’t push. Just walks beside me with her hand in mine and waits.
I don’t know why that makes it easier. It does.
“When I was fourteen,” I say. “Whisper intelligence came for me.”
She glances at me but doesn’t say anything.
“They’d been tracking what I could do since I was a kid.
Pattern recognition. The way I see connections other people miss.
” I look at the road ahead. “My parents were — they were proud. That’s an understatement actually.
This was everything they’d wanted. Everything they’d been building toward.
” I pause. “It was the highest honor my House could offer.”
“But you didn’t want it,” she says.
“I wanted to be fourteen.” It comes out too quiet. “I didn’t want that yet. Ya know? I wasn’t ready. I just — I wanted more time before life came at me.” I shake my head. “So I said no.”
She squeezes my hand.
“My parents called me a disgrace.” My stomach tightens. The word still does what it always does. “Both of them. Same conversation, same word. Like they’d agreed on it beforehand.” I meet her eyes for a second. “They chose the House over me.”
I breathe.
“They left. Just like that. I haven’t spoken to either of them since.”
She squeezes tighter, like it will change anything.
The tightness loosens.
Maybe it does.
“So when I woke up,” I say. “And you were just gone. No warning, no — nothing. Before I knew anything else, before I understood what happened—” I stop. “All I could think was that you chose to leave.”
She stops walking.
I close my eyes as I stop walking. I know how it sounds.
When I open them again she’s looking at me. I don’t deserve how she’s looking at me.
“I know that’s not what it was,” I say. “I’ve always known. It’s just—”
“Because of your parents,” she says.
“Yeah.”
She brings our joined hands up to her mouth. Kisses my fingers.
Now I can’t breathe for a different reason entirely.
She smiles as she pulls them away.
“No one is ever going to force me to walk away from you again, Kyron.”
She steps closer.
“You’re mine. I’m not going anywhere.”