"Fuck you." Her voice is shaking. Rage or fear—doesn't matter. Both. "What is wrong with you—"
My head snaps to the side. The sting spreads hot across my cheek and my hand is around her throat before I decide to move it. Her pulse slams against my palm. Her eyes go wide.
I could squeeze. I could—
My hand shifts. Releases. Finds her jaw instead. Grips hard enough to bruise.
I pull her closer.
And I laugh.
Low at first, then louder, spilling out of me in cracks I can't seal. She hit me. She actually hit me. This terrified little thing who couldn't say a word in The Hollow just slapped a Titan across the face.
"There she is."
"Let go of—"
I kiss her.
It's not gentle. My hand is still gripping her jaw and I take her mouth because I'm starving for it, all teeth and tongue and the copper taste of blood where she split my lip. She makes a sound against my mouth—fury, want, both—and I swallow it.
I pull back just enough to see her face. Her lips are swollen. Her eyes are wild. She's shaking and furious and alive.
She hit me. She's still in there—the fire, the fight, all of it.
I stop walking.
My cheek is still burning. I press my palm against it. Hold the sting there.
She hit me.
I liked it.
No—that's not right. That's too small. I want her to do it again. Harder. I want to make her so angry she can't stop. I want her hands on my face and my throat and anywhere else she wants to hurt me.
I lean against the wall. Close my eyes. Her taste is still on my tongue. Her palm print is still on my skin. And I'm standing in an empty corridor with my hand on my face like I'm trying to keep her there.
I am.
I am trying to keep her there.
Renan doesn't knock.
Just walks in—fully armed, blood on his collar, that flat expression that means someone's already had a bad morning. His eyes slide right past me in Koshin's bed and land on the god at the window.
"Rise and shine. We've got a rat problem."
Koshin hasn't moved. He's been at the window for hours—I woke twice in the night and both times he was there. Watching the dark. Watching me.
"The Faith rat?"
"Getting twitchy. Asking about departure routes. Might be planning to bolt with whatever intel he's scraped together."
Koshin's head tilts.
"Then we accelerate."
"That's the fun answer, yes." Renan leans against the doorframe, checking a blade I didn't see him draw. "We need to move in the next two hours. Catch him before he runs."
