Page 96 of Even if You Fall

He muttered something unintelligible as his arms dropped to his sides, still tense and ready.

“Good,” I whispered as if I had any idea what he’d said. “Let’s get you back in bed.”

At that, he turned so his side was facing us, and Asher’s hand tightened, stopping me from moving when I was only a couple feet away.

“If he’s afraid of falling asleep near people,” Asher began, the words a breath behind me that somehow had Adam’s head snapping in our direction, “you should probably stop suggesting it.”

Oh.

I stood still as I tried coming up with anything else, and failed, all while I watched Adam’s brow furrow as he mumbled things too low for either of us to hear, if there was any sound behind the words at all.

And then he held out his hand toward me.

“No,” Asher said as if he already knew I’d been about to reach for it. But that quick, firmnohad a terrifying darkness passing over Adam’s vacant stare.

“Adam, I’m here.” The words tumbled from my lips before I ever stopped to think about what I was saying. “I’m right here, and I’m okay.” Before Asher could stop me, I took another careful step toward Adam and slipped my hand into his.

In a move so sudden that I barely detected it, Adam pulled me to him, crushing me against his chest. A shock of pain tore through my shoulder when Asher tried keeping me back before releasing me. But then he was right there, looking between the two of us and intently studying our positions as if he was calculating the safest way to get me from Adam’s grip.

But Adam wasn’t hurting me. He was holding me close like he needed to know I was there—that I wasokay.

Catching Asher’s eye, I shook my head as much as my position allowed and wrapped my free arm around Adam’s back.

When his grip briefly tightened in response, I wondered what his nightmares had switched to. If seeing Asher behind me had conjured images of Owen and everything we’d learned these past days, or if he’d envisioned himself doing something he feared he had no control over.

“I’m here,” I repeated softly, a sound of surprise catching in my throat when Adam sat. Right there. In the middle of the hall. With me still in his arms so I was straddling his hips as he buried his face in my neck.

My cheeks burned with heat at the incredibly intimate position that Adam wasn’t awake for, and Asher was witnessing every second of as he stood ready to intervene.

But the second I started worrying about what Adam would think if he woke up to find us like this, he stilled beneath me. His arms became steel bands around my back, tightly securing me to him, and his chest’s movements halted as if he’d stopped breathing.

I hadn’t known fear had a taste until then. But it did.

It was bitter and heavy and saturated the entire air when it was strong enough.

“You’re okay,” I hurried to assure him, knowing he was awake.

“Chloe...” The strained sound of my name was filled with dread that crept through the nonexistent space between us before his chest shuddered. His next breaths were quick and panicked as he scrambled to hold me away from him. “Chloe?”

“You’re okay,” I told him.

“Why are you—what’d I do?” he demanded, his head snapping to the side once he realized we weren’t alone and his voice twisting around his next accusing words. “You let her near me?”

But Asher just stood there. Arms folded over his chest as he studied us. Just before he turned and walked away, he nodded at me in approval.

My attention shifted back to Adam when I felt his hands running up my arms and over my shoulders, his eyes wild with panic as he seemed to search for something.

Grabbing one of his hands in mine, I pulled it away from where it’d just reached my neck and told him, “I’m fine.”

The muscle in his jaw twitched as his stare drifted over me again and again, needing to see for himself.

“Adam—”

“How’d you get here?” he asked, his eyes lifting to mine on a delay.

The corners of my mouth twitched as that earlier blush came racing back to my cheeks. “On the floor? You sat us down.”

From the severe set of his jaw and brows, he didn’t find that nearly as amusing as I had. “How’d you gethere?” he repeated roughly. “Near me.”

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