Leia Stone

I swallowed hard. “What … was that?”

He sighed, releasing my chin, and ran his hands through his hair. “Give me time to look into this.” But I could see it in his face … he knew. He knew something and wasn’t telling me.

“Sawyer. What am I?” My voice was firmer this time and I could see the pity in his eyes.

He tucked a lock of blond hair behind my ear, looking sad, like he’d just received bad news. “You’re amazing.”

Sawyer?” I called to him, and he looked over at me, eyes still orange. “I’m okay.” I placed a hand on his chest and his eyes flickered blue. “I’m okay,” I repeated again.

His breath shuddered, and then he leaned forward, touching his forehead to mine. His eyes slowly faded from orange to blue. “Demi, I will never let anyone hurt you. Ever.”

My throat went dry. I believed him.

Could you fall in love with someone who you hadn’t even kissed? Because I was falling for Sawyer Hudson, hard.

“But I don’t worry anymore,” she said matter-of-factly. “Something about being gone in those woods has changed you. You’re more capable now than ever. I pity the person who gets in the way of you bringing Sawyer home. You can do anything, Demi. I see that now.”

Her words knocked the breath out of me, lighting a fire inside of me that had gone out last night when I’d heard the bad news. She was right. No one was taking Sawyer from me, not before he got to meet his son, and not before I got to love him at least eighty more years.