Page 110 of The Alien in the Archive

“This was the only place in the galaxy where I could hide,” I stop her. “Where else could we go?”

Her hands are trembling now, the books around us wobbling…then falling to the ground. She steps back, her energy spent. “You don’t understand. I can’t lose you. Not after everything.”

Something in me cracks. I release her shoulders and cup her face gently, my thumbs brushing her cheekbones. “Page,” I say carefully. “I’mright here. I’m not going anywhere.”

The tears spill now, and she squeezes her eyes shut as her face crumples. “I screwed up,” she chokes out. “I screwed everything up, Thorne. They saw my powers and I didn’t need to tell them about you, but I…God, I wanted them to know. I wanted them to believe me and help me and be happy for us. And they just…”

I pull her to my chest, stroking her hair. She cries quietly, fingers curling in my shirt.

“Riley and Thalara seemed receptive,” I murmur. “And Davina…”

I pause, wondering if I should tell her what I did.

No harm now, right?

“I wrote Davina a letter,” I say, “explaining everything. Put it in her mailbox a couple hours ago.”

Page looks up at me, eyes wide. “Oh my God…Thorne, she’s going to be so pissed?—”

“No, I don’t think she will,” I reply. “She’s a scholar; she’ll see reason. And I trust that she’ll protect you.”

Page’s tears stop as she processes what I’ve said. I can feel her doubt through the bond, like a faint, rippling current beneath her surface emotions. But there’s something else there too—a flicker of hope.

She sniffles and nods, wiping her eyes and stepping away to think. “Okay,” she says. “We have people on our side. Riley will back us up, I think Thalara will, and Davina…”

“Exactly.”

“And you haven’t done anything wrong.” She starts pacing, chewing on her lip. “So, even if Lyn and Orin go to someone, what can they actually say? You’ve been…what, hanging out and reading? You didn’t have anything to do with the Convergence.”

I watch her as she paces, her energy shifting from frantic to determined. “Nothing really changes,” I tell her. “We’ve just moved up our timeline.”

She exhales slowly, her shoulders slumping as the weight of the last few days seems to settle over her. “I feel like I’m on the edge of losing everything,” she admits. “I don’t know how to stop it.”

I force her to stop walking again, taking her hands in mine. “Change is coming,” I tell her. “We can stay here tonight…but this was inevitable.”

Page lets out a shaky breath, squeezing my hands. “Okay,” she whispers. “We’ll stay for tonight. And then tomorrow…maybe Davina helps.”

I nod. “Exactly.”

She looks at me for a moment, then she’s stepping into my embrace, sliding her arms around my waist. She breathes me in and I close my eyes to enjoy her mere presence. When I open them again, I see the couch she flung into the entryway, and I’m reminded that this is very, very new.

“That trick you did with the couch was impressive,” I remark, gesturing to the sofa. “Maybe you should start teaching me.”

She gives me a weak smile. “Let’s focus on not getting arrested first.”

“Fair enough.”

Ashlan pokes his head out of the bag, chirping softly. Page reaches out to scratch his chin, her movements slower, less frantic now. “At least someone in this room doesn’t think I’m crazy,” she says, gesturing at Ashlan.

“He’s probably just hoping for a snack,” I point out. “Speaking of which…did you happen to bring any food?”

Her laugh this time is fuller, brighter. For the first time in hours, the tension between us dissipates.

We’re not out of the woods yet. But at least we have hope.

43

THORNE

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