He lifted our connected hands to his lips. He kissed the back of mine and I closed my eyes. A small comfort.

“Yes,” he said. The word felt like a flame against the back of my hand.

“Please don’t.” I opened my eyes to see him staring through me.

“It’s not like I plan to. But there’s—”

I interrupted him by moving our hands to cover his mouth.

“Let’s keep it at that,” I begged. I couldn’t think about him going anywhere except across the state of Georgia.

“Deal.” He leaned back against the seat. “For now, at least.”

I didn’t want to read too much into his comment. It felt like a warning so it made me pause, but I blocked myself from digging into it. I focused on him. On his warm eyes, his careful and callused hand holding mine. Even inside of the eye of a storm, he could make me feel like I was safely planted. It was all about perception, and mine could have used a dose or two of reality. But instead of searching for the ground, I was floating in the sky with the brightest star of all. My mom’s voice echoed in my head as I leaned over and kissed Kael: The brightest stars burn the fastest, so we must love them while we can. She told me that only once, but all these years later I still remembered it.

I touched his cheek with my free hand, running my fingers over his skin. The soft scar tissue above his eye, but below the fresh cut there, the harshness of his jawline.

“Are you okay, really?” I asked, loading the question this time with extra meaning.

He laughed a breath through his nose and looked straight out of the windshield. “Maybe someday I will be.”

“Let’s go home?” I asked Kael, no longer wanting to pressure him with conversation.

He nodded in agreement, and I hoped he would come in and stay the night of his own accord, without me having to ask. We drove home in the most peaceful silence. My eyes closed again, and by the time we made it to my house I was dreaming of a place where I could keep Kael safe.

CHAPTER FIFTY