Page 88 of Fire and Silk
I step forward. My fingers touch his shoulder, barely.
He turns. His body is rigid, breath sharp.
I raise my hand between us.
The ring catches the light.
He releases Severo without a word. His arms drop to his sides. When he turns to face me, his expression is slow—like he’s watching the room tip sideways.
“…what have you done?”
I blink fast, but it’s useless. The tears come anyway.
“I chose power, Mico.” My voice is thick, wet. “I don’t want to be nothing.”
He flinches, just barely. A ripple of disbelief breaks across his face.
“You took the bond?” he asks.
I nod. Nothing else moves.
He steps forward and wraps his arms around me again, slower, more careful. His voice dips low against my ear.
“I don’t know what he told you,” he says, barely above a whisper. “But he’s lying. I have your passport. I have your plane tickets. We can leave tonight. Come with me, Lira. Please. Let’s leave all this behind.”
His hands tremble where they hold me. I can feel it—every suppressed shake, every broken hope.
I look up into his eyes.
They’re wide. Desperate. Still full of the boy I knew. And I know—if I say yes, he’ll protect me. Wrap me in something soft and familiar and untouched by ritual or war. I could disappear in that.
But I don't want to disappear.
I reach up and gently push my palms to his chest. One bandaged, one bare.
“It’s not about him,” I say. “It’s about me.”
His brows pull together.
“You were my first love,” I continue, my voice shaking. “You were kind. You were safe. I’ll always be grateful for everything you’ve done for me. But I’ve chosen my path.”
A tear slides down my cheek.
He reddens. Bright, immediate—like shame and heartbreak have set fire to his skin.
“But I love you.”
I nod. “I know.”
He stares at me like the world just shifted on its axis.
Then I wrap my arms around him, one last time. I breathe him in. Salt and ash and the last echoes of a life I’m not going back to.
“Have a great life, Mico.”
I step away.
Severo is already at my side. He takes my hand.
