(Apollo & Adelaide)
As they floated, Adelaide thought of Liam. Of Lyra. Of home. She thought of the cross. The ropes. The cold. The agony. Her mind flinched away from the phantom bite of rough wood against her back, from the weight in her shoulders, from the way her fingers had gone numb.
And then— She thought of his mouth on hers. His tenderness in the water. The safety of this heat. This moment. Her emotions surged, hate and desire twisting until her chest ached. It felt like being split in two—one half reaching for him, the other dragged backward, desperately clawing for a world that no longer belonged to her. The overlap left her raw, caught between past pain and the unfamiliar pull of the present.
“I don’t want to be here,” she whispered at last.
Apollo went still. Even the
