I can feel him,\u201d she says wonderingly. He\u2019s so warm and bright, even though he\u2019s hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what love looks like, I explain. \u201cThat\u2019s what it feels like to care about someone more than yourself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I want to feel like that,\u201d she whispers with longing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will, I promise. \u201cBut first, let\u2019s save Tristan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She nods determinedly and closes her eyes, focusing all her energy on pushing life back into the man who was willing to die for both of us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I can feel the change immediately, the shift from taking to giving. The power that was draining Tristan begins to flow in\u00a0<\/p>\n
back to him along with something extra.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something that feels like hope and healing and second chances and love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
reverse, carrying his life force\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it working?\u201d she asks anxiously, her small face scrunched up with concentration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so, I tell her, and I can feel myself starting to rise back toward consciousness. \u201cKeep going. Give him everything you took and more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The little girl nods and focuses harder, and I can feel Tristan\u2019s life force growing stronger, brighter,\u00a0<\/p>\n
more substantial by the second.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWill I see you again?\u201d she asks as the darkness continues to fade around us and the connection starts to thin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re part of me now,\u201d I tell her with a smile. \u201cWe\u2019ll never be separated again. We\u2019re going to do amazing things together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She smiles for the first time since I found her, and it transforms her entire face. She looks less like a scared, lonely child and more like what she really\u00a0<\/p>\n
A gift.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The darkness disappears completely, and I feel myself rushing back to the surface, back to my body, back to the room where Tristan is lying.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I open my eyes to find everyone staring at me with expressions of shock and fear and hope all mixed together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAthena, Sarah breathes, her voice filled with awe. \u201cYour eyes. They\u2019re glowing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know what she means until I look down at my hands, which are still pressed against Tristan\u2019s chest. They\u2019re\u00a0<\/p>\n
pulses in rhythm with something.\u00a0<\/p>\n
glowing\u00a0<\/p>\n
with a soft, warm light that\u00a0<\/p>\n
A heartbeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan\u2019s heartbeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I look at his face and see color returning to his cheeks. His chest rises and falls with steady, strong breaths, and his eyelids flutter like he\u2019s having\u00a0<\/p>\n
pleasant dreams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my god,\u201d Orion whispers, and his voice is filled with pride. \u201cIt\u2019s working. It\u2019s actually working.*\u00a0<\/p>\n
00\u00a0<\/p>\n
TUE\u00a0<\/p>\n
13\u00a0<\/p>\n
|||\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
:53 Tue, Jan 13 GRM\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 221\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derek leans over Tristan with shaking hands, checking his pulse and breathing and looking at the wound that should have killed him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His vitals are not just stabilizing,\u201d he says in disbelief. \u201cThey\u2019re getting stronger. His heart rate is better than it was before we started.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I can feel the power, the little girl, working inside Tristan\u2019s body. She\u2019s not just returning what she took, she\u2019s repairing damage, healing organs, making everything work better than it did before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And she\u2019s doing it with love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I understand now that this was always what she wanted to do. She never wanted to hurt people, she just didn\u2019t know how to help them. She\u2019d been trapped in darkness and fear for so long that taking had become her only language.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But now she knows different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now she knows what it means to heal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan\u2019s eyes flutter open, unfocused at first but growing clearer\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDid it work?\u201d he asks weakly, but his voice is getting stronger with each word.\u00a0<\/p>\n
by\u00a0<\/p>\n
the\u00a0<\/p>\n
second. When they find mine, he smiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I laugh through my tears, overwhelmed with relief and gratitude and love for this man who trusted me enough to die for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I whisper, leaning down to kiss his forehead. \u201cIt worked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But more than that, everything has changed. The power inside me, the little girl who just needed someone\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019s exactly what Tristan said she was.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A cure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And for the first time in my life, I\u2019m not afraid of what I am.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m proud of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 221 I can feel him,\u201d she says wonderingly. He\u2019s so warm and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}