Page 275 of Let Me In

Then sink to the floor, knees buckling beneath me.

Hard. The boards knock against my bones. Cleo shifts with a soft huff, her warm body anchoring mine as my breath stutters in and out.

Still holding her.

My hands are shaking... it feels like my chest is, too.

I don’t cry. But the edges of me feel sharp. Overheated. Wrong. Like I’ve wrecked something sacred—something he trusted me to hold.

I don’t even know how long I sit there. I just know I feel sick.

Not because of what the Watcher said.

But because of what he didn’t.

Cleo is quiet now. Tucked beneath my chin, breathing slow and even. Like none of it mattered.

But it did, it does. I broke his rule. One of the only ones he gave me.

And even though it was instinct, even though I’d do it again—

I feel it like failure.

The silence grows thick.

Too thick.

The fire snaps once and I flinch, stupidly.

My feet are stinging. My knee is still bleeding. My hands feel dirty, like guilt lives in my palms.

What if he knows?

What if the Watcher already told him?

What if he’s disappointed?

That one curls into my stomach like sickness.

Because it’s worse than anger.

Worse than anything.

I don’t check my phone.

I can’t.

Not yet.

Not until it buzzes, just one soft sound. One vibration against the floorboards near my hip.

I reach for it like I’m touching something hot.

And there it is.

His name.

A new message.

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