It feels like more than a temporary parting. The four of us have been together for so long, and this is where I undergo something that they can’t share.

Alice steps forward to give me a tight hug. “See you soon.” I hug her back.

William squeezes me from the other side and kisses my cheek. “We’ll still be close.”

Mariah rolls her eyes. “Y’all. It’s not like she’s going away forever. Jeez.”

They drift away behind Mariah while Sel lingers. I glance to Lu, who rolls her eyes and starts up the path, muttering something about “teenagers” and “drama.”

Sel steps into my space, frowning. His eyes follow the silver curls at my forehead with a displeased expression before they drop to my gaze. Displeasure still present. “I do not have to tell you that I am not okay with you being out of my sight, no matter how protected you are on this property.”

“No,” I reply, mimicking his low tone. “You do not.”

He rolls his eyes in mock annoyance. “But I do need to say one thing.”

“Of course you do.”

He reaches for my hand, tugs me close, and leans down to my ear. “I am… sorry about this morning.”

Tension in my chest releases, but I’m still feeling prickly. “You were mean,” I whisper.

He nods, dark hair a soft caress up and down my cheek. “That is because I am a mean person.” A pause. “But everyone else deserves it. You do not.”

My heart fills with warm honey, and Sel smirks like he can see it. Like he knows he did that and doesn’t care if I know, too. I haven’t fully forgiven him for mesmering me. I don’t know how we’ll heal that rift, but maybe in a place of protection and peace, it could be possible. At the very least, I won’t be worried about being choked, attacked, or disemboweled.

It should shock me that I’ve been living with all three of these threats for weeks now, but it doesn’t. It shocks me more that I could be somewhere where those threats are guaranteed to be absent. I’m somewhere—we’re somewhere—where we don’t have to look over our shoulders. Don’t have to lie about who we are. Don’t have to worry Erebus could be around every corner, or a Kizia, or a Jonas. My face must show some odd emotion, because Sel tilts his head.

“Just thinking,” I say. “About going to sleep tonight, not worried that I might be murdered. Or that you or Alice or William might be attacked because you’re with me. Maybe a whole part of my brain will be able to relax, at least a little.”

He chuckles, nodding. “I’m glad. We aren’t meant to run from trauma to trauma.”

I look around the grounds. “I think this place understands that.”