MAETHYS POV
The last rays of sunlight filtered through the bedroom window.
My fingers brushed my lips before I realized I was doing it.
The room was quiet—too quiet, in that way a “safe” place could be when your body still expected danger around every corner.
And still… my mouth remembered.
The kiss hadn’t been some sweeping, dramatic thing. No crowd. No music. No moonlight poetry. Just Valik, close enough that I could smell him, feel the heat of him, and one brief moment where the air between us stopped existing.
I pressed my fingertips to the spot again, as if I could pin the memory down and keep it from floating away.
It didn’t float.
It sank.
I tried to shake it off, rolling my shoulders like the movement could loosen the thought from my bones. It didn’t work. The second I for
