She couldn't stop seeing his face.
Not the shooters. Not the guns. Him.
The way he moved before the first shot. The way he grabbed her, pulled her down. His hands on her face, forcing her to look at him.
Hey. Look at me.
She closed her eyes. The hospital waiting room hummed with fluorescent light. Her cheek throbbed where glass had cut it.
She pressed her fingers to her temple. The headache was starting again. The one that came when she tried to hold too many things at once.
You would have done the same, he'd said.
Would she?
She thought about the way he'd pulled the belt from his waist. The way he'd wrapped it around Drake's leg without a second of hesitation. The way his hands had been steady even when they were bleeding.
She looked down at her own hands. They were still trembling. Slightly. Just enough to notice.
She hadn't frozen like that since she was a child.
She drove home on autopilot.
The apartment was dark when she walked in. She locked the door. Leaned against it.
Her mother's voice echoed in her head.
You're an Aurelian. You hear what others hide. But only when you touch them. Skin to skin. That's when the walls come down.
She looked at her hands.
In the car, he had touched her face. Held her steady. Skin to skin.
She hadn't meant to listen. She never meant to listen. But sometimes, when her walls were thin, thoughts slipped through.
She thought about his hands on her face. The way he held her steady.
And for a moment, just a moment, she had heard something.
A whisper. Faint. Like a voice underwater.
She's safe.
She pressed her hand to her chest. Her heart was beating too fast.
She sat on the edge of her bed. The apartment was quiet now. But she could still feel the echo of his voice in her head.
He was a Valerius. She knew it now. The way he moved at the cabin. The way he found the floorboard. The way he looked at empty spaces like he saw something she couldn't.
She should be angry. He'd hidden it from her.
But all she felt was something else. Something she didn't want to name.
She lay down. Stared at the ceiling.
Tomorrow, they would find the Kellans together. He would look at her with those dark eyes. She would pretend she didn't know what he was thinking.
But she would know.
She always knew when she touched someone.
And he had touched her face. Held her steady. Stayed close.
She pressed her palms against her eyes.
It doesn't mean anything, she told herself. He was saving your life. That's all.
Her heart didn't listen.
She turned on her side. Stared at the wall.
His face was still there. The straight nose. The pale lips. The way he said her name.
Ayra. Look at me.
She pulled the blanket over her head.
Stop it, she thought.
But she couldn't.
Her phone buzzed. A message from him.
I'm fine. Get some rest.
She stared at the words. Typed back.
You too. We find them tomorrow.
She sent it. Then she set the phone down.
She thought about his hands on her face. The whisper in her head.
She's safe.
She closed her eyes.
He was a Valerius. He saw the dead.
She was an Aurelian. She heard the living.
She didn't know what that meant.
She pressed her face into the pillow.
And tried not to think about the way his voice sounded in her head.