Chapter Seventeen
Nova POV
My feet hit the pavement hard, carrying me down the paths that snake around campus. The morning is sharp and cool, each breath burning my lungs, but I don’t stop. I won’t stop. If I keep running, maybe I can outrun the memory of last night—his mouth, his hands, his words.
Mistake. I told him it was a mistake. But my body keeps betraying me, remembering, aching.
I cut past the fountain and loop around the quad, dodging a group of students heading toward the dining hall. Their chatter is a low hum in the background. All I hear is the pounding in my chest, and all I see is his face when I walked away.
Eventually my legs give in and I slow to a walk, sweat cooling on my skin. I drop onto a bench near the library, trying to force my breathing steady.
“Storm,” a
