Chapter 43

• Aria
• I lay still in the quiet, wrapped in warmth that should have felt foreign but didn’t. Kai’s breathing had evened out, soft and steady, like the storm inside him had finally gone quiet, for now.
• His arms were around me, loosely but protectively. I could feel the slow rise and fall of his chest against my back, the heat of his body soaking into mine like sunlight. It wasn’t supposed to feel this comforting. Not with him. Not with someone I was supposed to hate. But in this moment, I couldn’t deny it, being here, wrapped in Kai arms, I felt safe.