Torin sighed. “It really hurt. I was afraid you wouldn’t come back, but I knew you had to come to this place, this moment. You had to know what you were choosing and not choosing. It had to be your choice.” Torin touched Gavin’s face in return. “If that meant being with her first, if we both had to hurt, then that’s what it meant. And it was always your choice. To pretend to be normal forever. Halfway with me in our country of dreams. Or with us, with me, in the whole world, asleep and awake.”
“I think I understand.” Gavin laughed and shook his head. “None of that matters now. I can’t believe I finally found you,” Gavin said slowly, feeling both terror and wonder. He timidly touched wet cuts on the man’s forehead and cheeks. Torin touched Gavin, the bullet burns, the cuts, the bruises.
T
