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Ryden loves me and that is a truth I’ll always trust in.

I took out my phone and typed a quick text.

Me: I always thought you were smarter than me. Cunning. I’m finally relieved to know you aren’t. I’m still going home with Ryden.

I entered the car and pressed a quick kiss to Ryden’s lips.

“What’s that for?” He smiled. He was the anchor I had always needed.

“For being yourself. You’re all I need when everything inside me is detonating. You keep me stable, Ryden. You keep me sane.”

“I love you, Red.”

“I know.”

The car slowly cut through the night.

The dark became darker, whispering sinister secrets. The shadows grew horns as they twisted around me. The nails grew sharper, cutting into flesh. I feared to close my eyes.

Irene’s words rang in my head like an echo, along with Sister Serena’s dead smile, and it was hard to run from the pictures in my head.

I pressed a hand against the window, staring at the dark that chased us. We ran, but the darkness always found us. Like it was tethered to our skin.

Ryden’s fingers brushed my back, pulling me out of the pit of despair opening wide inside me. I jerked.

“We are here.”

I got out of the car, and he followed. We walked into the house that had only ever been the reminder of everything I had lost. With Ryden here, it didn’t feel too… obscenely big.

Ryden sat on the couch, and I slumped next to him. He closed his eyes with a sigh. A long line formed on his forehead.

“That was hard.”

I pressed my fingers against his temples, softly massaging the worry lines. He looked tired, guilty.

“It is. My heart stopped when I realized Enzo was…” I trailed off. Ryden let out a long hum, his eyes still closed. It was bad for me, but it was worse for him.

“It was terrible. God.” His shoulders stiffened. “Enzo is my brother. I didn’t plan on any of that. He found me by accident, but it somehow became more.” His voice was soft. “And I’ll forever be grateful for that. I wouldn’t have survived without him.”

We sat in silence, as I softly traced his forehead, his brows, the scar in his lips. I’d remember his face, even if I go blind. I’d remember the curve of his smile, the crooked bent in his nose, the kindness in his eyes.

I wasn’t looking for this when I followed him that night. I was looking only for the rush, the excitement. I went looking for danger and sex, and then I found this.

Safety and love. Peace and calm. A home, which didn’t feel like a burial ground.

“Do you promise?” I asked.

“What?” Eyes bewildered, he leaned toward me, his fingers gently wrapping around my throat. His gray eyes softened—they shone like silver in the low light, and the way he looked at me made me feel like maybe, somehow, I’d be alright.

I had no idea how I had survived years without him, without the light that brightened his eyes.

“That you’ll stay forever? That you won’t leave when this becomes an inconvenience?” My voice was barely a whisper. My heart pounded in my ears.

I knew I was always asking too much, but he never said no. He would never say no. And that knowledge, it saved me.

“Yes. You, my feelings for you, won’t ever become an inconvenience to me, Yara. I promise,” he said, his eyes filled with heat. “As long as you want me. I’ll be right here.”

I smiled as he pulled me closer, his fingers tightening around my throat. My gasp was caught between his lips when he kissed me. The kiss was soft, tender, but his hand on my skin was not. It was demanding, possessive, desperate.