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Sleep ser and wariness on Jared’s face He looked younger, like the child she’d never been able to reach, and terribly vulnerable

"Hey," said Kami "Hey When you wake up, I have a lot to tell you" She’d known there was an explanation for all this She’d known it wasn’t that they were soul mates She knew she would have to be very careful when she told hi It was soothing to have him there but unconscious, so she could touch him and he wouldn’t flinch She could think about hi She could be sure that whatever he felt was not bleeding into her feelings, that now her feelings were hers alone

She could be al," she ," Jared murmured back

Kami jumped and let her hand drop She looked at hileaet sick like this Every fall"

Ka sick before he went hoht of the times in their lives he had reached out for comfort, and wondered how often it had been because he was ill She leaned over him, and her shadow fell across his face

"Don’t talk," she said "Just rest You’re safe I’ve got you"

"I re on sidewalks that felt like frying pans during the day and like gravestones at night My skin was crawling with fever and the only thing I could still do was listen to you"

"I didn’t know"

Ka to him, hadn’t known that he was real She had just talked to hiht," Jared said His voice was still hushed, but it was very clear "Everything’s all right now This was all I wanted"

"What?" Ka with his fast, shallow breaths He did not lift his head, dark gold against the pallor of her pillow She did not think he was able to He just lay there, thehis eyes opaque silverelse ever mattered to me, and you weren’t even real All I ever wanted was you"

Noas real, and she was real, and they were together No htmare explanation there hat mistakes , this year was better than the last

Jared’s eyes had closed Ka her hand treht, and stroked his hair very, very lightly She traced the curling ends of his hair with her fingertips and murmured, "I’m here now You’re safe with me"

She lay down beside him She curled close into the war to his breathing sht together, safe

Chapter Twenty-Three

Waking the Woods

Kami’s eyes opened and she stretched, both reflexive ood deal faster than usual The stretch brought her body into contact with Jared’s, lightly touching all along one side It was very strange to be so fiercely aware of one edge of your body

Jared was lying propped up on one ar, he said silently, and the two things fused together, the voice in her head and the boy in her bed They al, said Kami You look better She should have spoken aloud It was too intiht and rumpled sheets and silence It ht it--of when they were fourteen

There were thoughts you couldn’t help having at fourteen, thoughts they couldn’t help sharing Kaht of them now and felt the blood wash hot into her face

He was real now, and looking down at her, lying close beside her The ht, so her body inclined naturally toward his She touched his mind and saw his intense focus on her, theirback on each other The shape of hi and strange She could map out the muscles and planes of his shoulders under her palht she could reach up and slide her palht that, she heard his breath catch

On that sound, the door opened, and Jared threw hi on?" de

Jared blurted, "My intentions are honorable"

Kaht in her bed and stared in Jared’s direction "Are you cohteenth century How do you think that’s going to help?"

"Well, I ainst the wall like a cornered aniged

"I agree with Kaing" He did look inally amused now, rather than homicidal "Ash Lynburn, I presume"

Jared made a face "I’m the other one"

"Oh," said Kahter’s bedroo Fantastic What was that about your intentions again?"

"I’ht be best," said Dad