After everything with the Blackwells, I was running on empty. Wisteria's death had lifted something I hadn't even realized I was still carrying a weight that had settled into my bones so gradually I'd stopped noticing it. Now the only thing that mattered, the only person who mattered, was Lewis.
After I finished showering and pulling on fresh clothes, I found him in the bedroom, carefully rewrapping the bandages around his chest. The sight of them made something twist painfully inside me. The white gauze against his skin was a quiet reminder of what he'd done what he'd taken for me.
"Lewis…"
He looked up and simply reached out his hand, a silent invitation. "Come here."
I crossed the room and sat beside him, and he pulled me onto his lap without a word, wrapping both arms around me and resting his chin on my shoulder. His warmth bled into me instantly, the bond between us humming low and steady like it always did when we were this close.
