EMBER’S POV
I wake with his voice still rooted in my chest.
‘I might do the same.’
The words have been sitting under my ribs since the aurora, intimate and warm and terrifying in equal measure.
I said them. Or almost said them. Stood under those impossible lights with Knox looking at me like I was the only thing in the universe that mattered, and I almost told him everything.
I almost said I love you.
The thought makes me want to pull the covers over my head and never emerge. Because when did this happen?
When did I become the kind of woman who lies awake replaying almost-confessions, parsing every word and glance for meaning, wondering if he feels the same or if I’m building castles on sand?
I told him it was fine. When Rayana asked for some time alone, I said yes. I smiled and me
