Page 184 of Buried in Blood
She never asked for this.
She never got a choice.
But she made one anyway.
And Reese?
God.
If love had a flavor, it would taste like the way he looks at her. Desperate. Starving. Like he was never fed anything real until she looked at him like maybe he was worth the pain.
“I think they’ll be okay,” I murmur.
“They’ll be messy,” Lucien says. “But yeah. They’ll be okay.”
We fall silent again.
And I realize, for the first time since that Halloween night so many years ago—
I’m okay too.
No more monsters in the hall.
No more cages.
No more Damien.
I press my lips to Lucien’s jaw. He smells the kind of safety I never believed in.
“Tell me something true,” I whisper.
He meets my gaze. Blue eyes. Steady. Sure.
“I’d die for you.”
I shake my head. “No more dying.”
He smiles.
“I’d live for you, then.”
And just like that—
The storm ends.
And we begin.
* * *
It startswith a look.
Not the kind that burns. Not the kind that claws.
Something deeper.
Like reverence.
Lucien’s fingers trail down my arm, slow and certain, until they find my wrist. He holds it—not to restrain, not to guide, justto feel. The pulse there. The proof. The quiet miracle of still being alive.
