“I apologize,” he said, his voice curt. “Damned if I understand what it is I’m meant to be sorry for, though.” The last was said under his breath, almost to himself, but she heard it nonetheless.
Arsehole! Never mind. Rant away.
Lunara didn’t need any encouragement.
“You trapped me, Brand, and demanded an explanation in return for my release.Now, I get to eat if I’m clean, and I can only be clean if you drag me around without asking? Once again, you’re holding my freedom against me, and I don’t bleeding appreciate it.”
His eyes widened then dropped away, darting over the leaves littering the forest floor.
She crossed her arms and gave him her back, focusing on the peeling bark of a nearby tree to keep her mind from the pain sparking in every part of her. The exhaustion. “You should know—I value my freedom above all else. Taking my choices away will not go well with me. Ever. There’s a difference between using your body to protect someone and using itagainst thembecause you think you know better. Now do youunderstand?”
If he didn’t, then Brand was just likehim.A monster. The Council’s prized fucking pet. Hateful, cursed?—
No, no. Don’t go there. Ignore, ignore, ignore.
She wasn’t sure what she’d do if that was the case. Disregarding her own obstacles, Lunara would’ve said Brand was everything she could ever want in a male. Impossibly strong and heartbreakingly gentle in turns. Beautiful. Kind. She couldn’t keep him if she wanted to protect the autonomy she was so fiercely defending, but she might’ve had him for a little while. Might’ve stolen the opportunity to make searing memories for the long, lonely nights ahead of her.
He drew closer, his heat preceding his low voice, but she kept her gaze fixed away.
“I see now what you mean. I do. More than you know.” She felt a small tickling at her scalp, as if he was rubbing a lock of her hair between his fingers. “I saw your face before you ran and I…” He freed an explosive breath, the air sending a shudder through her. “I panicked. Already, I know you well enough to have realized something was terribly wrong based on that look alone. With everything else, fear seized me and I acted without thought.” His hand landed on her bare shoulder, his thumb tracing a lazy circle there. “Forgive me, Lunara. It won’t happen again, I swear it.”
His touch left her as the last word passed his lips, only serving to emphasize the promise he’d just made.
More of an apology than she’d had from anyone in a very long time. The first time in recent memory that she’d been heard and acknowledged.
The creature who’d ruined her life never would have done such a thing.
Stars above, you’re all over the damned place.
She didn’t care. Brand wasdifferent.
Lunara whipped around. “Brand, I?—”
Shock rattled every one of her nerve endings. Ripped all thought from her head.
Brand stood in a glaring beam of moonlight, towering over her. Blood and gore covered his clothes head-to-toe in dry, flaking streaks of black and brown, made worse by the way the branches swayed in the breeze and set the shadows to moving. She refused to identify the different bits and pieces clinging to him. Her mind wouldn’t accept any of it anyway.
How in the weeping fuck did you not notice that sooner?
The light had been dimming by the time she’d finished with the Fae, gone when she’d finished the burials, but still.
“You’re… filthy,” she said, swallowing her disgust.
His smile was tired, and not in the least bit amused. “I’ve had worse. But, yes,weare filthy.” Brand sighed and gave her a pointed look. “Hence the need to bathe.”
Oh no.
With dreadful realization dawning, Lunara looked down at herself.
Her dress… Her hair…
Blood had dried the lengths into hard clumps, all the way up to her shoulders in some places.
No, no, no, no, no…
“Brand,” she whispered.
A wave of nausea washed over her, and Lunara wanted nothing more than to erase the creeping awareness of what was stuck to her. She stumbled to the side, Brand gripping her arm to?—
