For a moment, there was no response. Both of them listened to the sound of the other’s surprised breaths.
"Liana?" Lucian’s voice on the other end was tentative, almost disbelieving. She heard him move, maybe sit up straight. Then, after a beat, a quiet, breathless, and disbeliefing chuckle. “Liana, is it really you?”
“Yes,” she whispered, struggling to hold back the emotion tightening her throat. Tears pricked her eyes as relief surged within her. She knew he couldn’t see her nodding, but it didn’t stop her from doing it anyway. “I’m fine, Lucian.”
There was a long pause, the kind where words seemed too clumsy, too inadequate to capture everything they both felt. She heard shuffling on his end, as if he was pacing or perhaps searching for something, or perhaps moving to a quieter place
