We stay like that for a long, quiet time, locked together, floating on the slow, lingering ripples of the storm that just passed through us, our ragged breathing mixing in the quiet dark.
Then, without warning, the wall of quiet strength I’ve kept built up all night simply crumbles.
A sob breaks from my throat, not from pain, or fear, but from the sheer, staggering weight of everything we've survived to reach this second.
The months of looking over my shoulder, the terror of Knox, the fear of losing my Dad and brother and Locke... it all overflows at once. Hot tears spill over my eyelashes, streaming down my cheeks in silent, unbroken rivers.
Locke freezes, his chest rising sharp against mine. "Zara?"
He eases back just enough to look at me, his eyes searching my face in the dim ligh
