Page 50 of Finn
I wanted to reach out and touch him, to let him know he wasn’t alone in this.
But for a moment, I couldn’t move, my body still wired with the adrenaline of the escape.
It was like I’d been holding my breath for days, waiting for something to go wrong.
And yet…nothing had. We were finally free. Without thinking, I shifted in my seat, my hand moving to rest on his.
His fingers curled around mine, and he looked at me, his expression softening.
“Finn,” he said, his voice low, almost reverent. “I can’t believe you did this for me.”
“I did it for us,” I whispered, barely trusting my voice.
The fear, the worry, it was all still there, but there was something else too.
Something that felt like hope, fragile and flickering, but there.
“I can’t just forget you after finding out you’re still alive,” I said.
The words hung between us, thick with all the things we’d never said.
Gabriel’s thumb brushed over my knuckles, a gentle, grounding touch that made me feel like he was pouring all his strength into that single point of contact.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
The silence wasn’t empty, though. It was filled with everything we’d been through, everything we were still afraid of.
But it was our silence, something we shared, and that made it feel…almost sacred.
Then, suddenly, he shifted, leaning closer, his face inches from mine.
I could feel the heat of him, his breath mixing with mine in the small space between us.
My pulse raced, but I didn’t pull back. I couldn’t.
There was something magnetic in his gaze, something that held me there, that made the world fall away until it was just us.
“Finn,” he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. “I… I thought I’d never see you again. Seeing you again, here, like this…” He swallowed, his hand tightening around mine. “It’s a miracle.”
My heart pounded, and without thinking, I reached up, my hand trembling as I brushed a strand of hair back from his face.
His eyes fluttered closed for a brief second, his face leaning into my touch, and the vulnerability in that small movement made something inside me ache.
“I’m here,” I said.
He opened his eyes, and for the first time, I saw them shine with something beyond anger, beyond pain.
It was like all his walls had crumbled, leaving him open and raw.
My hand slipped down to his cheek.
Gabriel turned his head just enough to press his lips to my palm, a soft, tender kiss that left a tingling warmth spreading up my arm.
I didn’t know how long we stayed like that.
It felt like we were caught in a moment outside of time, savoring a peace we hadn’t known in so long.
After a while, he let out a shaky breath, breaking the stillness.
