CLARE POV
I didn't realize how tightly I had been holding my breath until I saw the chipped number on my apartment door. My apartment. Safe zone. Familiar.
The moment Blaze's feet touched the concrete just outside my apartment doo, I slid off his back without a word. My limbs were trembling, my throat dry, eyes stinging from crying, from screaming, from that damn nightmare that still clung to me like cobwebs spun in blood. I barely had the strength to stand, and yet every inch of me itched to get inside. To get away. Away from marble corridors and vampire courts and burning flesh and that dining table made of nightmares.
This was my space. My safe place. Even if the shadows in my apartment were long and creeping now… at least they were mine.
But I barely took two steps toward the door when it opened.
I flinched hard, bracing myself.
And then I saw him.
Reed.
