Tristan\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through it all, Athena kept holding my hand. Every time I moved, she moved with me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every time someone else hugged me, she waited right there until she could take my hand again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was like she was afraid I\u2019d disappear if she let go, and honestly, I didn\u2019t mind. I liked the feeling of her hand in mine, liked the constant reminder that we were both here and alive and together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you feel?\u201d Derek asked after we\u2019d all calmed down a bit. \u201cAny pain? Dizziness? Anything unusual?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel perfect,\u201d I said, and it wasn\u2019t an exaggeration. \u201cBetter than perfect, actually. Like I just woke up from the best sleep of my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYour heart rate is stronger than it was before,\u201d Derek said, checking his notes from before the procedure. \u201cYour breathing is clearer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even that old injury you had on your ribs from the fall last year, I don\u2019t hear any clicking anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I pressed my hand to my side and realized he was right. I\u2019d broken those ribs badly six months ago in a race gone wrong, and even\u00a0<\/p>\n
after they healed, they\u2019d always clicked when I took deep breaths. But now there was nothing, just smooth movement and no pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is incredible,\u201d Derek said, shaking his head in disbelief. \u201cShe didn\u2019t just heal the immediate injury, she healed everything. Old\u00a0<\/p>\n
wounds, minor damage, everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I looked at Athena and saw the wonder in her eyes as she realized what she\u2019d done. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean to do all that,\u201d she said softly. \u201cThe little girl, the power, she just wanted to fix everything that was broken.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
gift.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s amazing,\u201d I told her, squeezing her hand. \u201cDo you understand what you\u2019re capable of now? This isn\u2019t a curse, Athena. This is a\u00a0<\/p>\n
She looked down at our joined hands, at the gloves she was still wearing even though she probably didn\u2019t need them anymore. \u201cI\u00a0<\/p>\n
don\u2019t know why this is still on\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThen let me help you remove it\u201d I said, and she smiled at me with tears in her eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I gently removed it and threw it at the opposite end, making her laugh loudly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s get you both cleaned up,\u201d Sarah said, gesturing to my blood\u2013stained shirt. \u201cAnd you should probably eat something. You\u2019ve both\u00a0<\/p>\n
been through a lot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mention of food made my stomach growl loud enough for everyone to hear. Athena laughed again, and the sound was so normal, so her, that it made my chest feel warm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
1:0\u00a0<\/p>\n
04\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 224\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat actually sounds amazing,\u201d I said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We all headed downstairs to the living room, while Sarah went to the kitchen to make food. It was late afternoon now, getting close to evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena and I sat at one of the tables, still holding hands across the wood surface. She kept looking at me like she was making sure I was real, like she expected me to disappear if she blinked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can stop worrying,\u201d I told her. \u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d she said. \u201cI just keep thinking about how close we came to losing this, losing you, losing everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you didn\u2019t,\u201d I reminded her. \u201cYou figured it out. You did exactly what you needed to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause you gave me the chance,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause you were willing to risk everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what love is,\u201d I said simply. \u201cAt least, that\u2019s what it should be. Being willing to risk everything for the person who matters\u00a0<\/p>\n
most.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She squeezed my hand tighter, and I squeezed back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orion brought over glasses of water and sat down across from us. Derek pulled up a chair too, his notebook still in hand like he couldn\u2019t quite let go of trying to document everything that had happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 224 Tristan\u00a0 Through it all, Athena kept holding my hand. Every time […]<\/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-26381","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\/26381","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=26381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}