But beneath the banter, my thoughts dragged me elsewhere. Back to when she was slipping through my fingers, empty, lost, somewhere dark, somwhere I couldn't follow. That memory still gutted me. The helplessness of it. The way I'd wanted to claw my own skin off just to feel something while she drifted farther away.
Now she was here, across from me, breathing, teasing, glaring. And the terror of losing that again gnawed at me with every beat of my heart.
"Kael," she said suddenly, snapping me out of the spiral. Her voice was softer, questioning, as she cut a piece of her food and leaned across the table to push it against my lips.
I let her feed me. I didn't even blink, just parted my lips, held her gaze, and swallowed slowly. But I didn't look away. I couldn't.
Her brow furrowed. "What are you thinking about now?"
I stared at her too long, maybe too raw, before the words slipped out, low, fragile in a way I rarely allowed myself.
