LEAH
I don't remember falling asleep, but I remember the way Lucian’s voice clung to the walls of my thoughts long after he left.
"You haven’t earned that yet."
I keep replaying it, over and over again, like some lullaby. I don’t even know what I was thanking him for, maybe for staying. For not looking at me like I was a burden. For calling me his in a moment so charged I’m still trembling the next morning.
My body aches like I’ve been trampled by a herd of bison, but there’s something oddly… satisfying about it. It's a different kind of high, painful, but pleasurable.
I try to get up quietly. Every bone in my body protests, but I make it to the small mirror hanging crooked above the dresser. My reflection stares back like a stranger, pale, bruised, hair wild.
I touch my lips sl
