Starfall (Starflight #2)(98)

Cassia wasn’t sorry. She’d meant what she’d said before—there was no place she’d rather be than inside this grubby tent with him. “Thank you for choosing me.”

“Of course. Was there any doubt?”

Yes, there had been, on the beach before she’d stunned him. The struggle between the drug and his heart had played out so clearly on his features that she’d feared she had lost him forever. But she didn’t want to think about that, so she kissed his forehead and held him close. “You know I love you, right?”

He murmured against her throat, “I love you, too, Cassy,” and his words lit her up inside because the only other time he’d spoken them was under the influence of an inhaler. And that didn’t count.

“Tell me again.”

He did, over and over and over, until the other patients began to stir and she pulled away, not out of embarrassment, but to protect the moment and keep it private.

“So what now?” she said, brushing a thumb over his cheek. She hadn’t thought to ask him whether he still wanted to work for Gage. Kane had spent most of his life following her from one crisis to the next, and she didn’t want that for him anymore.

They were partners now—all in.

He made a show of thinking it over, then suggested, “How about a shower?”

Laughing, she gazed at her best friend, the boy whose shine had warmed her heart for so many years that she’d briefly gone blind to it. Now her eyes were open, and she saw him clearer than ever.

“That sounds like a good place to start.”


MELISSA LANDERS (melissa-landers.com) is a former teacher who left the classroom to pursue other worlds. A proud sci-fi geek, she isn’t afraid to wear her Princess Leia costume in public—just ask her husband and three kids. She lives outside Cincinnati in the small town of Loveland, “Sweetheart of Ohio.”