Page 65 of BounBound By Scars

Her legs looked like they’d betray her at any second, but she held.

Barely.

Sebastian walked up to squeeze her hand in silent encouragement as she passed, and I could’ve decked him for it. Not because of jealousy—well, maybe a little—but because I knew how fragile she felt. The kind of fragile that cracked under the wrong kind of comfort.

She made her way to the center of the stage, lips parted like she was whispering her speech to herself. But I knew her well enough to see it.

She’d forgotten the whole damn thing.

Or abandoned it.

Her fingers trembled slightly as she adjusted the mic stand. Then, she took a breath—shaky, unsteady, beautiful—and smiled.

“I had a speech,” she said, voice low and wavering. “I had note cards and bullet points and this whole plan to be witty and charming and make you all cry. Hoping I’d outshine this menace of the squad.”

The crowd chuckled softly as she gestured at Logan, who was puffing his chest. But Kaylan was quick to swat him on his thigh.

“But… I left it somewhere between my room and this mic. So I guess I’m winging it.”

She swallowed and glanced at Zarek and Leora, but her eyes didn’t stay there long.

They found me.

And stayed, causing me to frown slightly.

“Tonight, I saw what love looks like. Actually I’ve been seeing it since the day we added a new trainee.”

For everyone else, the new trainee clearly meant Leora. But my stupid heart couldn’t stop beating erratically at the thought that she meantme.

Her voice was steadier now. “Not just love, but trust. History. Madness. Obsession.”

Zarek gave her a look, like he wasn’t sure how much of that was about him. But Leora just smiled.

“And when I say love,” Amelia continued, her voice softening, “I don’t mean fairy tales. I mean the kind that shows up in the ugly, broken, irreparable moments and stays anyway.”

She looked away for a beat—like the words were too big to carry.

Then, she found me again.

And I felt it in my goddamn marrow.

“I’ve spent years thinking I wasn’t built for that kind of love. That maybe people like me don’t get it. That maybe it’s just a mission I’m never going to complete because too many other missions were weighing me down.”

I didn’t realize my hands were clenched tight and I was almost hyperventilating until Zane elbowed me lightly under the table.

But Amelia was still speaking. Still winging it with more fire than I’d ever seen.

“But I think… I think we all meet someone who makes us wonder. Who makes us rewrite our plans and second-guess every decision. Someone who makes you so flustered that youend up making stupid decisions. A love… that doesn’t leave you anotherchoice.” She looked at me with such fierceness that my vision blurred.

She exhaled—just a little. “Zarek and Leora found it. And I’m sure they will hold on tight until their last breaths.”

“I think I found it too.” She added in a voice so low that the mic barely caught it.

The air in my lungs turned to ice.

She wasn’t looking at the crowd at all.

She wasn’t looking at Zarek or Leora.

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