Belle didn't move. I didn't either. We lay in the wreckage of eight-hundred-thread-count Egyptian cotton that would never be white again, breathing together while the fabricated city threw light across our bodies. Milk dried on my chest and jaw. Belle's blue hair stuck to my neck in damp threads that smelled like her shampoo and something sweeter underneath.
The System notification resolved in my peripheral vision.
◆ RESONANCE COUPLING ◆
Target: Belle Fox
Devotion: 93% (▲4)
Status: Yours
Coupling: MAXIMUM
Targets Complete: 2/4
Field Density: Climbing
I dismissed it with a thought. The number mattered less than the fact that Belle's breathing had gone from ragged to steady to something dangerously close to sleep. Her hand rested on my forearm, her fingers loose but present. The city lights painted her closed eyelids in alternating gold and blue.
"Belle."
"Mmph."
"You can't sleep. We have a schedule."
