Tristan
Through it all, Athena kept holding my hand. Every time I moved, she moved with me.
Every time someone else hugged me, she waited right there until she could take my hand again.
It was like she was afraid I’d disappear if she let go, and honestly, I didn’t mind. I liked the feeling of her hand in mine, liked the constant reminder that we were both here and alive and together.
“How do you feel?” Derek asked after we’d all calmed down a bit. “Any pain? Dizziness? Anything unusual?”
“I feel perfect,” I said, and it wasn’t an exaggeration. “Better than perfect, actually. Like I just woke up from the best sleep of my life.”
“Your heart rate is stronger than it was before,” Derek said, checking his notes from before the procedure. “Your breathing is clearer.
Even that old injury you had on your ribs from the fall last year, I don’t hear any clicking anymore.”
I pressed my hand to my side and realized he was right. I’d broken those ribs badly six months ago in a race gone wrong, and even
after they healed, they’d always clicked when I took deep breaths. But now there was nothing, just smooth movement and no pain.
“This is incredible,” Derek said, shaking his head in disbelief. “She didn’t just heal the immediate injury, she healed everything. Old
wounds, minor damage, everything.”
I looked at Athena and saw the wonder in her eyes as she realized what she’d done. “I didn’t mean to do all that,” she said softly. “The little girl, the power, she just wanted to fix everything that was broken.”
gift.”
“That’s amazing,” I told her, squeezing her hand. “Do you understand what you’re capable of now? This isn’t a curse, Athena. This is a
She looked down at our joined hands, at the gloves she was still wearing even though she probably didn’t need them anymore. “I
don’t know why this is still on”
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“Then let me help you remove it” I said, and she smiled at me with tears in her eyes.
I gently removed it and threw it at the opposite end, making her laugh loudly.
“Let’s get you both cleaned up,” Sarah said, gesturing to my blood–stained shirt. “And you should probably eat something. You’ve both
been through a lot.”
The mention of food made my stomach growl loud enough for everyone to hear. Athena laughed again, and the sound was so normal, so her, that it made my chest feel warm.
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Chapter 224
“That actually sounds amazing,” I said.
We all headed downstairs to the living room, while Sarah went to the kitchen to make food. It was late afternoon now, getting close to evening.
Athena and I sat at one of the tables, still holding hands across the wood surface. She kept looking at me like she was making sure I was real, like she expected me to disappear if she blinked.
“You can stop worrying,” I told her. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know,” she said. “I just keep thinking about how close we came to losing this, losing you, losing everything.”
“But you didn’t,” I reminded her. “You figured it out. You did exactly what you needed to do.”
“Because you gave me the chance,” she said. “Because you were willing to risk everything.”
“That’s what love is,” I said simply. “At least, that’s what it should be. Being willing to risk everything for the person who matters
most.”
She squeezed my hand tighter, and I squeezed back.
Orion brought over glasses of water and sat down across from us. Derek pulled up a chair too, his notebook still in hand like he couldn’t quite let go of trying to document everything that had happened.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
