AZREN
"Not tonight," I repeat, my voice softer.
Sabrina's jaw drops. Her green eyes dart between me and Noelle, lingering on the way my arm is wrapped protectively around my wife's waist.
"Azren," she says, and there's that soft, coaxing note she always uses when she thinks I'm being stubborn. "You know what happens when you skip. The voices come back louder. The cold gets deeper. The last time you tried to push through it, you nearly—"
"I know what happened last time," I drawl. My voice is calm. It's the kind of calm I haven't felt in years.
Tonight, it feels like someone opened a window in the war zone inside my skull and let fresh air in.
Noelle shifts against me, her breath warm through my shirt. I glance down. She's watching Sabrina with those big amber eyes. She's wary but not
