Page 43 of Theirs to Crave

I pulled her shaking body into my arms, and we clung to each other. I knew those tears. The ones you learned to shed silently, because the person who’d caused them was lying next to you,and if they caught you crying, it would only get worse. I knew the shame of it, the fear. The hopelessness.

I never thought I was “the kind of person” who got into abusive relationships. Everyone said it started at home, and my family wasn’t like that. Loud and invasive at times, but always with love.

But my parents died. And then my grandparents. It had just been Mariano and me, and...I’d been lost. Drake had seemed like everything I could have asked for: handsome, a good job, stable. I’d thought he loved me.

I’d been so wrong. And it had taken me too long to claw myself out of the pit he dragged me into.

I held Cass while she cried, gritting my teeth against my own looming memories, and thanked God that Yin had killed that bastard Logan.

Cass sniffled and winced, dabbing at her cheeks with a corner of her sarong. The burns on her face were finally beginning to heal, but the salt probably still stung like a bitch.

Burn in hell, cabrón. I hope you fucking suffer.

“A brand-new planetisabout as fresh a start as you can get,” I offered, testing a smile.

Cass snorted. “I guess so.” Her mouth tipped up, and she giggled.

“But maybe next time you could shoot for somewhere with indoor plumbing?” I suggested, catching a whiff of myself.

Her giggles grew, then she was wheezing, clamping her hands over her mouth to hold in the delirious sounds.

She said something—I could barely understand her through the snickering—but it might have been, “Thatwouldbe fresher.”

I started to laugh too, and we collapsed together, shushing each other and cackling.

Eventually, we settled down. She snorted as we worked to catch our breaths and almost started the cycle all over, but we managed to pull it together. Miraculously, no one popped their head out of the palapa to see what was causing the ruckus.

Cass flopped onto her back, looking up into the sky with a small, peaceful smile on her face.

I was smiling too. I always felt clean after a good cry. Sort of scrubbed out, emotionally.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”

I followed her gaze, freezing under the glare of two angry moons.

The quiet emptiness turned into a vacuum, locking me in place and stealing the air from my lungs. I couldn’t look away.

Two moons.

It wasn’t morning. I was a fucking idiot.

Two. Moons.

They were growing, swelling until they were all I could see.

Two.Fucking. Moons!

“Estrella?”

I closed my eyes, but they were still there, branded on my eyelids.

“Hey, hey. Breathe with me, ok? In. . .out. . .in. . .”

Vaguely, I became aware of my hand rising and falling. Cass held it pressed to her chest as she breathed deeply. The movement was hypnotic, and I focused on it. Gradually, the sickening sensation of spinning faded, and I blinked.

“There you are. What can you see?”

Cass’s voice was soothing, but her words made no sense.

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