Maybe he is dwelling on the pain of his own past, just as I had.

I wait as he releases his sorrow. The currents of his grief wash against my heart, again and again, and I have no way of reaching out and stopping it. I don’t have a right to. Instead, I listen and feel his pain mix with mine.

After a while, Red leans closer to me. He’s afraid of you, he tells me. He’s afraid of us both. He’s afraid of everything he has ever destroyed, of all the harm in the world coming back onto him. His time is ending, Talin. I promise.

I nod, and within the grief hollowing my heart, I can feel the burning of a flame. To my surprise, something about that flame brings a lump to my throat.

Red, I say to him now. I’m sorry.

He blinks at me. Sorry for what?

I thought I understood everything you went through as a Skyhunter. I didn’t.

He quiets for a moment, and then takes my hand. You are the reason I live, he tells me. And as long as I have this life, I will dedicate it to you. I will be at your side in any battle, whether out there at the palace gates or here, in this grove, in your heart. You saved me. I owe everything to you, Talin. Remember that.

His words flood me with warmth. Without him and the others, my mother might never have made it out of the prison district. Never survived the horrors Constantine inflicted on her. But here she is, after all she has suffered, still able to feed that flame. Still ready to head out and fight.

None of us could have made it this far without each other. And yet, here we are.

In the darkness, my gaze finds his. Maybe, I say, haltingly, maybe someday, after we get out of here, that is, if we survive …

We will survive, he tells me firmly. Then he pulls me to him and kisses me.

We had sat at opposite ends of a bathhouse before, each dwelling on thoughts of the other. We had kissed once in a dream state, something that felt so tangible that I thought it was real. We had shared a stolen kiss in the shadows of a thoroughfare street, afraid for more. But this moment is different. Not stolen. Not in fear. Just … us.

Red’s lips on mine, our bodies close together, here in a real grove under a real night sky. He leans into my touch, then wraps his arms around my waist. I kiss him harder in return, my breaths shallow. In spite of his grief, I feel safe in his arms, unbreakable. He shifts to kiss my cheeks, then the line of my jaw, then my neck.

I run my hands down his arms, then gently against the bandages wrapping his sides. His movements turn faltering now, his gaze shy. He is new to all this, I realize, having spent most of his youth trapped in the lab institute. So I stop and take his hands in mine, then guide him. We say nothing to each other. There is no need to.