The Luna Queen's Rebirth (Ellie and Dominic) novel Chapter 359

Chapter 359

I didn’t answer that, mostly because I knew he was right.

I stayed on the couch until the food was cold and Lucas had fallen asleep sitting up with his head tipped back, something that I envied. I cleaned up the containers, pulled the throw blanket off the back of the couch and tossed it over him, then grabbed my jacket from the hook by the door.

I needed air.

The night was cold and clear, my breath coming out in little white clouds and leaves crunching under my boots. I walked without a destination, my hands buried in my pockets, following the streets through the center of town where a few windows-mostly bars and one diner were still lit up and the occasional car rolled past.

I wished my mother were here.

Over the weeks that had passed since her death, my pain had dulled slightly, turning from a sharp stab in the chest every time I took a breath to a low, background ache. It followed me everywhere, but it was less debilitating now than it had been in the beginning.

But I felt it particularly sharply tonight. She would have known what to say. She always had. Even when I was being stubborn and difficult, she had a way of cutting through it and finding the thing I actually needed to hear.

I wondered what she would have told me now. Probably something sentimental. Probably something about following my heart, even if it was terrifying. And if I told her that I didn’t know what my heart wanted, she would have embraced me and told me to take the time I needed to figure it out, and that everything would be okay in the end, and…

Goddess, I just wished I could hug her right now. That was all I wanted. No solutions-just the feeling of her warm arms wrapping around me and her familiar, sweet scent.

I exhaled and watched my breath disappear into the dark.

I’d been walking for maybe twenty minutes, looping back toward the main street, when someone called my name.

I stopped and turned.

Ryan was standing outside a small convenience store with a paper bag tucked under one arm, looking at me like he wasn’t entirely sure I was real.

“Ellie?” He crossed the distance between us, staring. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

He blinked, then held up the bag. “I was driving by the pack. Stopped for an energy drink.” He lowered it. “It’s, uh… been a while.”

“Yeah,” I said. “It has.”

Silence fell. We stared at each other for a moment, both clearly not sure what to say.

“How are you?” I blurted out, mostly to fil lthe silence.

He huffed and looked away. “I’ve been better.”

“What’s wrong?”

He was quiet for another second, shifting the paper bag under his arm. The look on his face was familiar-the kind of look he got whenever he was trying to figure out what to say.

“It’s Dominic,” he said.

B

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