Chapter 28 #2
Zach studied the glowing symbol, his expression unreadable. Anger no longer battered her. The tension in his shoulders eased as his rigid control loosened.
He shifted and met her eyes, not like a problem to be managed, but like a partner. Someone who saw what he saw. Understand what he understood. Her heart skipped a beat.
The last of her anger and frustration drained away. “I'm sorry.” The words came easier now. “I should have told you I was leaving. I just… I couldn’t breathe in there. Couldn’t think.”
“I know,” he said, voice gruff. “I should have made allowances for that, given you time. Should have—” He stopped, jaw working. “When I realized you were gone, all I could think was that someone took you. That I failed to protect you again.”
The intrinsic fear in those words struck her chest like a physical blow. He hadn’t been furious, he’d been scared. For her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m right here.”
They stood facing each other in the dim cave, close enough that Emma noticed the flecks of blue in his grey eyes. With every breath, she drew in the teakwood and lavender scent of him, the mineral dampness of the cave lingering beneath. The space between them felt charged, electric.
She should pull back. Move away from him. But she couldn't make her feet move.
The shimmer in the carved spiral pulsed brighter.
“Emma.” Her name on his lips was barely a whisper. He reached out, his fingers brushing a strand of dark hair back from her face. His touch sent shivers racing down her spine.
She didn’t step away. Didn’t want to, but the knot in her stomach tightened. She couldn't trust him with her heart. He'd only push her away again.
“I need you to understand something.” His hand cupped her jaw, thumb tracing her cheekbone, and she froze in place at the tenderness in his touch.
“What I told you… what you saw me do… that’s a part of me I’ve worked my entire life to understand.
To control. Because it’s dangerous. Because people get hurt. ”
Emma's stomach tightened further at the vulnerability in his words. “You didn’t hurt me.”
“I could have.”
Emma leaned into his touch, her own hand rising to rest against his chest. His heart pounded beneath her palm, a constant beat, steady as the ocean tide. Despite her reservations about opening up to him again, she couldn't let him think of himself as a monster.
“Even when you’re terrifying, even when you look like you might tear the world apart… you’ve never made me feel unsafe.” She brushed her thumb over the rock hard muscle. “You protected me, Zach. Saved my life. I trust you to protect me.”
I trust you to protect my body, just not my heart. The thought cut like a knife.
Something flickered in his eyes. Pain. Wonder.
Disbelief.
“How are you not afraid of me?”
“Because I see you,” Emma said simply, pushing aside her reservations in her need to reassure him.
“Not the weapon. Not the guardian. The man who makes terrible coffee. Who runs ten miles every morning like he’s being chased.
Who protects his brothers fiercely and pretends he doesn’t care about anyone but would clearly die for the people he loves. ”
He dropped his forehead to rest against hers. They breathed the same air, hearts beating in synchronization. The cave hummed around them; that subtle vibration from before now emanated from everywhere.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Zach murmured. “In my life. In this danger. You should run as far from me as possible.”
“I should.” Emma’s hand slid up to his neck, fingers curling into the short hair at his nape as she ignored the voice in her head telling her to step back, to protect her own heart, to run. “Too bad I’m terrible at doing what I should.”
His lips quirked in the shadow of a smile before his gaze dropped to her mouth, and the smile faded into something darker. More intense.
They drew together like magnets. Inevitable. Natural.
Her eyes fluttered closed as the distance between them shrank to nothing—
A sudden surge of water crashed through a narrow channel in the rocks behind them.
They sprang back, hearts pounding. Emma stumbled backward, tripping on the uneven ground. Zach’s hand shot out to steady her, then slid away like she burned him.
The tide had shifted. Water flooded through gaps in the lower sections of the cave floor, churning and foaming. The sound echoed off the stone walls, filling the space that had been so quiet moments before.
She pressed her hand to her chest, trying to slow her racing pulse. Her lips tingled with the kiss that hadn’t happened. Her whole body electrified like a live wire.
Zach stood rigid, staring at the water like it offended him. His jaw clenched so tight that the muscle jumped.
“We should—” Emma started.
“Yeah,” his voice was rough. “Storm tide’s coming in. The cave will probably flood with the surge.”
The carved spiral had stopped glowing, faded back to ordinary stone. They moved toward the opening in unspoken agreement, neither quite able to look at the other.
The way the cave had responded to them. Individually, or both together?
At the entrance, Emma paused and looked back. The symbols on the walls weren’t visible, but she knew they were there. Ancient. Powerful. Connected to everything that was happening.
She pulled the coin from her pocket and studied it one more time before tucking it safely away.
“I think I should talk to Ana-Luz again.”
Zach nodded. He stood silhouetted against the late afternoon sky, his expression unreadable. When he spoke, his voice held a note of something she hadn’t heard before. Trust.
“We’ll go together.”
That simple statement settled into her chest, warm and solid. We. Not him protecting her. Not her following his lead. Together.
She stepped out into the fading light, intensely aware of Zach falling into step beside her. Of the careful distance he maintained—not quite touching, but close enough to feel the warmth of his presence beside her.
The coin rested heavily in her pocket. The memory of that glowing spiral played behind her eyes, and the ghost of the kiss that had almost happened lingered on her lips like an unfinished promise.
Whatever lived in that cave... she couldn't shake the thought that they were at the center of it.
Somehow, despite the danger and the fear and the impossible circumstances, that felt right.