Suddenly Ash switches it off. “Why do you think I came here with you, November?” He wears the same laser-focused expression his sister uses when she’s concentrating on a problem.

My pulse quickens. “Why?”

“Yes, why would I leave my twin sister, my training at the Academy, and risk my life to be here with you?” he asks, and I can see that this answer is important to him.

“Um,” I manage. My dad always said I could talk the hind leg off a dog, but right now English seems to have vanished from my brain altogether. Ash waits and I swallow. “Well, you want to stop the Lions, for starters.”

“Not the reason I’m getting at.”

I’ve never seen Ash this serious and it’s making it harder to think. “You enjoy a good risk?”

“I’m falling for you, November,” he says, and my heart pounds so hard that I hold my breath, hoping it will slow down and not reveal how off-kilter those words make me feel. “I realize that might sound trivial to you. I saw those pictures in your room, listened to your stories. And I am certain that you’ve been surrounded by people who care about you your entire life. But it’s new to me. Caring about someone other than my Family wasn’t encouraged; in fact it was actively discouraged.”

I remember him telling me how attached he was to his best friend and how she was burned alive in her house. I would stop getting attached to people, too.

“You asked me why I decided to come on this mission with you. You listed all the reasons I shouldn’t. That is why. The truth. Because being without you felt like a greater sacrifice than all the rest.” He steals a look at me and my stomach drops so fast that I reflexively touch it.

For two seconds I just stare at him. I want to tell him that it’s not trivial and that I care about him a great deal. But I can’t seem to get my thoughts in order or my tongue to work. “I…”

“No, you don’t need to say anything. I don’t expect you to,” he says, and before I can respond he continues. “But I do need you to trust me. You didn’t say a word to me before you left for Emily’s.”

I rub my forehead, my cheeks flushing. “I know. I…It’s just Pembrook. I guess I’m not used to asking someone before I do things there.” As the words leave my mouth, I know they aren’t even a sliver of what they should be.