//CLARA//
I needed the heat of him to burn away the month of ice Aunt Cornelia had pumped into my veins. I kissed him like I was drowning and he was the only pocket of air left in the world.
He kissed me back but then he pulled away just an inch.
"Not here," he rasped. "Not in this room where the air tastes like her."
His hand had closed around mine, pulling me away from the stifling space from his study. Away from Aunt Cornelia's lingering presence. Up the hidden staircase, and down the forgotten corridor until we stood in this broken dome located right on the mansion's rooftop.
The moonlight pouring through the broken panes like liquid silver. Telescopes, their brass bodies tarnished, stood like sentinels among the dead leaves that littered the floor. The city sprawled beneath us like a sleeping beast, the sky vast and endless above.
It was quiet. It was isolated.
