{ "Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within." }
My body still hummed from where her hands had been. From where we'd been. But the heat had passed. The madness, the ache, it had burned itself out in the furnace of her touch. And now all that was left was this strange, quiet stillness. Like the world had taken a breath and was finally holding it. I sat up slowly, muscles sore in that good way, the way that meant I'd been claimed, loved, known. My clothes were scattered around the cave like forgotten thoughts. I reached for my shirt, pulled it over my head with shaking fingers, then my pants, still warm from the firelight near the cave mouth.
Flora was slower to move. She lay on her side watching me, her hair a dark halo around her flushed face, lips parted in that soft, dazed smile she only wore when she forgot to guard herself.
"I can't feel my legs," she murmured.
I snorted, tossing her tunic toward her. "You'll live."
