My thoughts stopped to focus on her, how she let her head sink to my shoulder, heavy with defeat. "What is?" My voice was breathy, every bit confused.
Her round pupils flickered up to me, long lashes hitting her eyelids. “If I ever end up like this, I might as well just give in.”
My brows pulled together, head shaking. “No, no. You can do this. Just think.”
Her arms flailed as best as they could against the cage mine made around her. “Let's be serious, if this were real I’d be dead by now. Do you really think this creep will give me five minutes to figure out how to escape?” She released a sigh as her eyes drifted forward. “This was probably why he chose me to conquer. He saw how weak I was.”
My mouth moved before my mind could catch up. “Radcliffe was an asshole, Cora. And an asshole like him would have attempted what he did, whether it was you or another one of my clients he was assigned to.” Her eyes were back on me.
Neither of us had spoken about who it might be, but some part of me thought we didn't needed to. Of course Oscar and his team were chasing every lead, regardless of who it lead to, but something in my head was screaming at me to focus on Jamie.
It wasn't that it just made sense, it was the picture of him as he left my office, wearing a smile that felt like he knew that wasn't the last time we'd see each other.
And from the look in Cora's stare, the slight panic woven between the shades of brown, something told me she thought the same.
My mouth slipped open. “Just because he got through to you doesn’t mean you’re weak, it just means he knew what he was doing. He was a snake.”
She shook her head in a way that felt helpless, her eyes earning a glisten. “But I knew that. Towards the end I saw that side of him and what did I do?—”
“You did nothing wrong—”
“I let him creep in.” She shrugged. “I let him worm his way into my mind, and now he won’t leave. Because I was stupid.” Her arms flailed again. “I’m so stupid that I’m making you spend your morning training me because I’m defenceless without you.”
“You’re not defenceless.” I swallowed as her shiny eyes pierced mine. “You have every weapon in your arsenal. You just need to learn how to use them.”
Her head tilted, those foxy eyes glinting. “Do you mean that?”
I nodded. “Of course I do.”
Those brows pulled inwards, the way they did before she cried. But there was something different about it this time. It wasn’t sadness. Instead, it felt like… curiosity.
From this close I could perfectly trace the outline of her lips, and I’d never noticed, because I’d never looked before, but her cupid's bow was perfect. Like whichever God was carving it spent an entire day making it seamless. She had freckles on her cheeks, pale things, but they were there, sprinkled over the sheer rosiness that lived on them. Her lashes were naturally long, getting longer the further outwards they went, and the same midnight shade as her hair.
I had no time to pull back before I realised our faces were the closest they’d ever been. No time to stop that pull I swore I’d felt before. But as that thought nearly materialised, pain bloomed in my rib cage, and my chest felt empty as she slipped from under my hold. I hunched over and held my side, easing the pain that felt like a broken rib.
It all happened so quickly, I wasn’t sure if it was real or not. One second I was counting the freckles on her cheeks, the next I was holding in my groan, arched over and trying to stop the stars from sniping in my vision.
After a few seconds, I stretched up, my hands still gripped at my side, as I found Cora, wearing that shit-eating grin just as well as she wore that lilac set.
I shook my head at her. “What the fuck just happened?”
She shrugged, as casual as ever. “I just used a part of me that wasn’t yours,” she said, smirking like it was the most natural thing in the world.
I recalled the past thirty seconds, things getting clearer the longer I thought back to what she was saying.
Her mind.
I didn’t have her mind. She was using that against me.
Smart girl.
I shook my head. “Huh.” I stumbled towards her, the pain easing as I stood over her. “I take it back, you’re as dangerous as they come.”
I watched her spin around, slipping on the mitts once more, while I stood and watched, thinking back to how easily she’d slipped inside my mind.
And how easily I’d let her walk in.
chapter eighteen
