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He had lifted our hands in the air, tracing over my fingers. He went rigid for a moment. “No,” he exhaled. He squeezed my hand. “There’s been moments in the last couple days where I wished I could believe that, but I don’t. I love you. The three of us, what we’re doing, we can’t go into it lightly. It was a decision that all of us made. I think we all made it at different points, but it’s firm for me. I think it’s firm for you. And I know it’s firm for Lee. I’m not going anywhere.”

I rolled my head toward him. “Good. Neither am I.” I meant it with everything in me.

He held my gaze, his eyes turned tender again. Rolling to his side, he propped his head up on his hand, resting his elbow on the bed. “I love you.”

Warmth bloomed in my chest. “I love you too.”

37

Heat was spreading through my body. It woke me up. Lee’s hand was on my stomach, his eyes were closed. The heat was coming from him. Opening his eyes, he saw me looking at him and stopped whatever he’d been doing.

Cassian was still sleeping on my other side, turned away and hugging his pillow to his chest.

“Hi,” I whispered to Lee.

Soft lines were under his eyes, and his smile was still so tired. He leaned in, whispering, “Morning. Can I kiss you?”

“Morning breath.”

“Is it weird that I think your morning breath is cute?” He dipped his nose to touch mine, softly. “And I slipped out so I don’t have morning breath.”

I nodded my head.

His lips fell on mine almost immediately.

This was a kiss. He didn’t hold back, pressing against me.

New heat began to lick inside of me. My pulse picked up.

He moved closer so he was almost over me, his mouth exploring me. We kissed. That’s all we were doing. There were no hands’ exploration. A part of me wanted that, but I was also glad we were keeping this somewhat PG-13 until his tongue slid inside and suddenly I wanted way more than PG-13. After a minute, he lifted his head and moved back so he was beside me. His hand returned to my stomach, moving my shirt up again and slipping underneath to rest on my skin. He frowned at it before his eyes flicked up to mine.

“That ghost healed you. I started to think that if she could do that, maybe I could too. I… I was trying to heal you.”

My mouth fell open. “Are you serious?”

He nodded, a little line pinching itself between his eyes. It was adorable. “I think it was working. How are you feeling?”

I started to answer him but quieted to actually feel instead. I moved my legs a little. My arms. My head. “I feel great.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah.” It was true. I did feel great. I felt on top of the world. “How are my bruises on my face?”

“Healed, but that bitch did a lot of that.”

“Her name is Sabine.”

“She has no name. She’s dead to me.”

My chest hurt a little. I lifted a hand to rub at it. “What did you do with her?”

“Nothing. I tucked her away. Technically she’s still over the football field, but a while back I figured out how to lock my energy in a self-containing pocket so it’s kinda my way of a prison cell. She’s invisible to everyone until I move that energy aside. She’s a ghost, though. She could hang in there forever and still be fine.” He went back to rubbing his hand over my skin. “I’d rather try to keep healing you. Do you want to get up and see how you’re feeling?” He lifted my shirt to inspect my ribs better. “The bruises are gone.”

I gasped, lifting up enough to see for myself. He was right. And they felt great, as if the attack had never happened. I wiggled my toes. No pain. My fingers. No pain. I lifted my arm up. There was no pain anywhere.

“How long have you been healing me?” I was in awe.

“A while. I couldn’t sleep.”