Lyra watched the needle rise above one hundred. “Yes.”“Ah, back to that, are we? One-word answers. Sinking into deep silence. That’s not going to change what happened between us, you know.”“I know.” He flicked her a glance. “There, two words. Happy?”“Delirious.”She couldn’t keep her mouth from turning up, though. He hadn’t closed up completely. Watching him pressed against the window, sinking into his misery, had torn her apart. She’d given him space, and eventually they’d succumbed to exhaustion and fallen asleep on the couch.He turned up the car stereo, and a soft rock song filled the car. Queensrÿche’s “Silent Lucidity” scrolled across the screen, and the guy sang about the dream being over…or was it just begun?The words filled her chest. “We let ourselves have something, Archer. Maybe we’ll never have it again—”“We won’t.”The needle went higher, but he said nothing.“Because it hurts too much to not have it.
