Page 67 (1/2)

“I bruised you” He slid his hands under her wrists, his skin darker against the paler hue of her o marked by bands of dull red

Fairness made her break her silence “I did worse” She’d hit hi to take at least an hour to heal, in spite of his vaash His shirt, ripped at the shoulder seam, betrayed faint red marks that were almost healed, but on the whole—“I came out of it better than you”

Dark, dark eyes met her own “The physical hurt isn’t the core of it, is it?”

Her sto her throat “All of it,” she said in a voice turned rough fro we’ve done to this pointI think it’s gone” Lost under the shock and terror that had reduced her to a clawing ani, trapped creature who had once more been made a helpless victith, crushed her faith in her own judgment, but most of all, he’d taken the pride she’d rebuilt scrap by scrap, and she wasn’t sure she could forgive hi a word, he threay the cotton swab after taking care of all the scrapes and made sure not to crowd her as she left the bathroom Chilled deep within by a sense of loss that made her feel hollow, as if her entire existence had been wiped away, she stu room and to thethat looked out over a city lashed by rain

The lights were h the water, until it felt as if she was all alone in the world, trapped in a glass cage It was a feeling hich she was intimately faed, it had made the loneliness bearable, but it had always been there, inside of her, this strange “” It was Dmitri who’d filled that hole, and Der

A whisper of the darkest of scents and she knew he’d walked into the living room on silent feet But he didn’t come to her, and aacross the open-plan space divided only by the sether a plate and bring it to the table after clearing away her ca around the table toward her, he kept a distance between them It made the ice in her chest impossibly colderand then she kneas her heart that was frozen “Eat, Honor,” he said “You haven’t for hours” There was so in his voice she couldn’t read, an element she’d never before heard from him

Angling her body so she could look him full in the face, she saw only the walls of an aline “You should go” She couldn’t stand it, having hiulf between them It was undoubtedly idiotic to feel this lost by the end of a relationship that hadn’t ever really begun, but it felt as if he’d reached inside her and crushed her soul, then ground it under his boot

A bleak shadow in those eyes of so deep a brown they were ale in them “You send me away”

Would you send e echo, focused on the man who stood so close and so distant “I have to” To survive, to scrape the tattered reether

Dainst the glass in aToday the tone felt jarring, the beat too jagged against her oversensitized nerves When Dmitri raised a hand, then dropped it, she felt the loss like a stab to the heart, and she understood he could hurt her worse than he already had But then he did the one thing she’d never, ever have expected

Holding her gaze, he closed the final distance between them and went down to his knees, that beautiful bruised face looking up at her