Leon didn't speak for a long time. He just watched Lyra stand there, small and trembling but refusing to look away. Her eyes were swollen, lashes wet, but she held his gaze with a strange kind of certainty. Not naive, not childish—just real.
This was the moment he understood she hadn't said those words on impulse.
She meant them.
Leon let out a slow breath and finally broke the silence.
"Lyra," he said gently, "following me isn't some small thing."
"I know."
"You don't know what I'll face in Starhallow."
"I don't care."
"It's not safe."
"It wasn't safe when you were working here either," she countered. "People pick fights every night. You stop them without a second thought. You put yourself between danger and everyone else. So let me do the same for you."
Leon blinked. He hadn't expected that.
