Our monster.
Who made us her monsters in return.
"We should go," I say to Rev. "Got practice at nine."
"Yeah."
We dress quietly, and I'm almost to the door when Lexi's voice stops me.
"Atticus?"
I turn. She's awake now, propped up on one elbow, Koa still dead asleep beside her.
"Yeah, love?"
"See you Friday?"
"Wouldn't miss it."
She smiles, and it's the smile that does it—the one that's just for me, just for this moment. The one that says she sees me, knows me, wants me.
The one that makes this whole fucked-up situation worth it.
"Good," she says. "Because I'm not done with any of you yet."
"Neither are we," Revan says, kissing her forehead before following me to the door.
We leave them there—Lexi and Koa in that too-small bed, wrapped around each other, both of them scarred and healing and alive.
Outside, the campus is just waking up. Students heading to early classes, dining halls opening, the world continuing like nothing happened.
Like we didn't just spend the night redefining what love looks like when it grows in darkness.
"Same time next week?" I ask Revan as we walk toward the parking lot.
"She'll text us before then."
"Yeah." I grin. "She will."
As we drive back to Blackridge, I can't stop thinking about her. About them. About this impossible thing we've built together.
It won't last forever. Nothing this intense ever does.
But while it does?
I’m going to enjoy it.
LEXI
I wake up properly when my alarm goes off at 7:15. Koa's still here, arm draped over my waist, breathing deep and even against my neck.
Revan and Atticus are gone, but I expected that. They have their own lives, their own responsibilities. We all do.
This isn't a fairy tale where we live together happily ever after. We're still figuring out how to exist in the same world without destroying each other. Still learning the boundaries, the rules, the way to make this work when we're all fundamentally broken people.
But we're trying.
And that's more than I thought I'd have a month ago.
