Page 23 of One Merciful Moment

Fine meant he was standing. Fine meant he could handle it. Fine meant nobody needed to ask questions he didn't know how to answer.

She wound her arms around him and tilted her head back to look at him. "You always say that."

He grunted, hearing the smile in her voice.

"You don't have to be fine all the time." She squeezed him.

He peered over her head at the others. "I'm not built for whatever you are."

"Whatever I am?" she half-laughed. "What does that mean?"

"Light." He lowered his gaze. "You laugh like nothing's ever hurt you."

"Plenty has hurt me." Her smile faded. "We don't have to be the same. You don't have to be like me. I want you to be the person who has a past and keeps moving forward. Without everything you've gone through, you wouldn't be Boone... I don't know your last name."

"Cusick," he muttered, unable to remember the last time he'd spoken it.

"Boone Cusick." She smiled. "I like it."

He grunted. There was no pride in a name that only had bad things attached to it.

She slid her hand down his arm until her fingers curled around his wrist. "You don't have to pretend you don't feel things." She stretched to her toes and kissed him. "Not with me."

"I don't know how to navigate my life while feeling everything."

It was the closest he'd ever come to explaining himself.

Ashley looked at him for a long moment, and he waited for the concern he couldn't stand. Instead, she gave him a small, almost amused smile.

"I'll be right beside you, showing you the way."

He stared at her, trying to understand how she could say something like that so easily. She had life figured out. Even finding herself in a different world hadn't set her back. She found her path.

She wasn't afraid.

That was Ashley's gift. She didn't make his darkness disappear. She simply refused to let it convince her to walk away.

Chapter 14

Ashley

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Boone crouched beside Ashley, his shadow falling over her hand. "First rule. Don't go past the tree line alone."

She glanced up. "Because of the deer?"

"Because of everything." His mouth twitched. "The woods shift. Paths change. You can get turned around fast. There's a barrier there too, like in the street. Moe and Finn used to ride their motorcycles there, but not anymore."

She nodded, brushing dirt from her fingers. Boone stood and offered his hand to help her up. She took it, and he didn't let go right away.

"Second rule," he said, voice low, "don't trust the quiet."

She tilted her head. "Everstill is always quiet."

"That's the problem." His gaze swept the horizon. "When it gets too still, too calm... the veil is doing something."

"Will it open?"