Page 182 of Buried in Blood

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Not perfectly. Not quietly.

But fully.

I squeeze Astra’s hand and kiss the top of her head. “Let’s make the rest of our life boring.”

She laughs, that sound I’d kill to keep hearing.

“Boring sounds perfect.”

And for the first time in forever—

I believe it.

54

Astra

I never thought peace would feel like this.

Not quiet. Not weightless.

Just…full.

The kind of full that settles behind your ribs and warms your lungs when you breathe in a certain way. Like the world isn’t pressing against your throat anymore. Like you finally exhaled the scream you were holding.

I’m sitting on the bedroom floor, legs folded beneath me, back resting against the edge of the bed. The room smells like absinthe and mint. Lucien’s scent. Home.

The window’s cracked, letting in the early morning breeze. Somewhere outside, birds are singing like they don’t know the world burned down just weeks ago. Or maybe they do, and they’re celebrating.

I don’t blame them.

We won.

Not in a loud, cinematic kind of way. Not with medals or applause or some grand, romantic all-consuming kiss in the rain.

No.

Wewon in the quiet aftermath.

In the way Evelyn smiled without flinching yesterday. In the way Dante held her, gently, like she was something sacred. In the way Harmony looked up at Reese with more hope than fear for the first time since I met her.

We won because we’restill here.

And Damien isn’t.

God, that thought—it’s like honey on my tongue.

I should feel more conflicted. I should feelsomethingfor the man who played god with our lives.

But all I feel isfreedom.

Damien is dead.

And Harmony is not.

I close my eyes, palms flat on my thighs, and whisper the truth to myself:

She survived him.

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