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M y heart leaps so hard within my chest that my hand flies to it.

Oh, feeling.

That crisp lens through which I saw the world shatters, and now it’s flooding with chaotic color.

Is this what joy feels like?

“Striker!” My feet carry me to him, and my hand slips around his hand again.

“Hey,” he says, his voice softer, his forehead crinkling, and his fingers twitching, although his eyes don’t open.

“Hi.” It feels like such a small word, but it also contains everything I feel.

His forehead creases more deeply, and I sense his struggle. “I want to hold your hand, but I can’t seem to?—”

“No,” I say urgently. “Don’t try. Not yet. I mean, yes, if you want to try, then try. I will never tell you not to try. But don’t push yourself—” Without letting go of him, I half-turn toward the door. “Tansy! Come quickly!”

“Okay,” he whispers, the growing tension I sensed in his arm easing.

Tansy bursts into the room a moment later. “He’s awake?” She rushes over to him. “You’re awake!”

His eyes finally crack open, and I’m concerned to see how bloodshot they are, how unfocused, until his gaze shifts to me and then… slowly… his irises blossom with amber, growing brighter while his lips soften.

“You’re here,” he says to me.

“Yeah.” I can’t stop the sob rising up into my throat. “I’m here.”

“I missed you.”

I missed him. I sink into the chair again, keeping hold of his hand, trying to stop the tears. “I’m glad you’re awake.”

It’s all I can manage to say, but for now, it feels like enough.

For the next hour, I sit quietly while the activity around me intensifies. First, Tansy checks Striker over. Then, Hunter and Slade arrive, all of them talking together.

The fact that Striker is barely moving seems to be a cause for concern. If he were human, they would expect the next stage of his recovery to take time, but his supernatural status should be giving him an advantage.

“He’ll walk again,” I say, interrupting their hushed conversation. I arch my eyebrows at him. “Yes?”

He gives me a lopsided grin, although even that simple movement seems to exhaust him. “Yes.”

I stay until he falls asleep, and then I stay a little longer, needing the reassurance that he is, indeed, only sleeping.

“I’ll be back tomorrow. Just like I promised,” I whisper, finally releasing his hand.

I’m true to my word, returning the next day with a new book. Well, not new . It’s tattered and dog-eared, but it has the best smell when I open it, so that’s why I chose it.

Striker still isn’t moving on his own, but the nurse is there, carrying out his physical therapy. I ask if he’d like me to come back later, but he tells me as long as I’m comfortable being here, I’m welcome to stay.

The next day, he’s able to move his fingers. The day after that, he can turn his head.

Each day, there’s progress until he’s getting in and out of bed on his own. Then, standing without assistance.

Each day, he tells me that as long as I’m comfortable being there, I’m welcome to stay.

So I stay.

Often, I sit in silence while others bustle around him. Mostly, I read to him. Never do I question him about his future, and he doesn’t question mine.

Finally, a month after he first woke up, I visit Tansy’s, taking the stairs two at a time, stepping into the room, and?—

He’s gone.

The bed is made. The book I was reading to him yesterday rests on top of it.

Tansy appears behind me, her brow furrowed. I read her perplexed thoughts before she speaks them.

“There are things he needs to take care of,” I say. “He hopes I’ll understand.”

She blinks at me. “Oh, it’s startling when you do that. But yes, that was the message he left for you.”

Judging by the intensity of Tansy’s recollection of Striker’s voice when he spoke the message, Striker really does hope I’ll understand. His actions are not intended to be hurtful or dismissive, even if I’m a little confused by them.

“Okay, then,” I say, compelled to accept his choices because they’re his to make.

But as I leave Saber Lane, I’m quietly hit with the realization that my purpose is more than vengeance now.

I want more than that in my life.