The next morning, I woke to Alex’s heavy gaze already focused on my hand, more specifically the silver-banded black stone of my ring. I sighed, letting him know I was awake and immediately he looked to me concerned. Dark circles hung under his eyes and I knew he hadn’t slept much. Probably having been up all night worried about the ring, I brought my hand to his cheek.
“Alex,” I whispered, but really I didn’t know what to say. If the ring really was what shielded me, it meant that he could erase my thoughts. I trusted he’d never do that, so what was there to be so afraid of? So what if my mother knew about us? It wouldn’t change anything, we hardly even knew if the person sending these threatening notes was really my mother. Maybe it was just someone trying to scare me, maybe they were p
