Salt Kiss – Episode 35
The safe house grew silent after midnight. Tristan took the couch near the entrance and left the bedroom to Isolde, positioning himself where anyone entering would have to pass him first.
Sleep arrived in fragments. The attack at the estate merged with Afghanistan until shattered glass became desert grit and Isolde’s voice became Jay’s.
In the nightmare, Jay held the grenade again. This time Tristan pulled the trigger and saw Mark fall.
He woke fighting for air, one hand reaching for a weapon while the room refused to become real.
“Tristan.” Isolde knelt several feet away, careful not to touch him. “You’re in the safe house. No one is attacking us.”
He forced his hands open. Sweat chilled his skin, and shame followed awareness.
“Go back to bed.”
“When you can breathe.” Her tone was gentle but not fragile. She counted slowly, giving him a rhythm to follow without ordering him to calm down.
The technique worked. Tristan’s lungs gradually stopped fighting him.
“Who is Jay?” she asked.
He should have refused. Instead, exhaustion stripped away caution. “My best friend. I killed him.”
Isolde did not recoil. She waited until he explained the grenade and the soldiers Jay would have killed.
“You saved them,” she said.
“I still shot him.”
“Both things can be true.” The answer echoed the language Tristan had once used about hating and trusting Mark.
Isolde offered her hand but waited for permission. When Tristan nodded, she placed it over his, grounding him in the present.
“You protected me today,” she said. “That does not erase what happened to Jay, but it proves the worst moment of your life is not the only truth about you.”
Tristan looked at the woman he had expected to resent and found compassion without pity. When she returned to the bedroom, the absence of her hand felt strangely cold.