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I tried to speak, but nothing came.

His hands hovered for half a second, as though he was giving me the choice. Then he pulled me into his arms. I didn't resist. The moment my body touched his, something inside me gave way. I grabbed his shirt and buried my face against his chest. He wrapped both arms around me. Firm. Steady. Safe.

“I've got you,” he murmured.

I sobbed harder.

His hand moved slowly over my hair.

“It’s okay. You're safe.”

I shook my head against him.

“I can't do this. I can't⁠—”

“Shhh Adriana. You’re safe.”

I clung to him. Demitri simply held me. Without asking me to explain or to be strong. He just held me, comforting. His palm moved over my hair again and again, slow and deliberate.

“I've got you,” he whispered.

I believed him. For the first time since my world had collapsed, I believed someone when they told me I was safe.

I lifted my face from his chest. His eyes met mine. He was no longer a priest; he had become just a man looking at me as though my pain had become his.

His thumb brushed beneath my eye, catching a tear.

“You scared me,” he said quietly.

I stared at him.

“When you didn't come back.” His jaw tightened. “I thought something had happened to you.”

“You were worried?”

His eyes didn't leave mine.

“Yes.”

It was one simple word, but it burrowed deep inside me.

He had been worried. About me.

I reached up without thinking and touched his wrist. His hand turned beneath mine until our palms met. Until that moment, Demitri had been the man who had rescued me.

He was the man who watched the doors and checked the windows. The man who knew when to move and when to hide. He had kept me alive.

But now I saw something else. He wasn't simply protecting me because it was his duty. He was afraid of losing me. And somehow, that frightened me more than anything. Because I was beginning to realise I was afraid of losing him, too.

11

ADRIANA

Demitri walked me back to the booth with his arm around my shoulders.

He didn't say anything as we crossed the diner. His arm was firm around me, keeping me close without making me feel trapped, and for the first time in days, I didn't feel like I had to hold myself together entirely on my own.

When we reached the booth, he waited until I slid onto the seat before he took the seat opposite me.