Merry must have realized she was still touching me because she lowered her hands from my head to her lap and clenched them together. I wished she hadn't.
Callum rose to his feet. "Well, I hate to kick y'all out of here, but I'm ready to hit the hay." Merry opened her mouth, but he pointed a finger at her. "If my eyes are blurry, yours must be too. Take a break. Sleep a few hours. We'll pick this up in the morning. We've already given Ava her update for tonight and worked an extra six hours. You'll miss something important if you don't rest."
Merry shut her mouth with a snap and glared at Callum, who seemed completely unperturbed by her sour attitude.
I leaned to one side and started to push myself to my feet. The dizziness from the shock was almost completely gone, but I was still just a bit shaky. Merry realized what I was doing and abandoned her stare-down with Callum to help me up. Her arm wrapped around my waist and she tried to prop me up with her weight.
I laid my arm over her shoulder and let her help me because I didn't want to sit there while she bickered with Callum all night. I knew all too well that he would do exactly that just for fun.
"Night, you two," Callum called as he shut the door behind us.
Merry sighed and turned toward my room. I tried to shift out of her grip, but she held firm.
"I'm helping you to bed," she stated. Then, her cheeks turned fiery red and she blinked rapidly. "I mean, I'm helping you to your room."
"I really am—"
"Fine. I know. I'm still helping you."
I sighed because even from the strange angle, I could see the hard, stubborn set of her jaw. I couldn't see her eyes, but I was certain they were glinting with pure obstinacy. There was no use arguing with her because there was no winning the argument. I'd learned a long, long time ago to never go into battle if I was certain of defeat.
I'd left my door open and she guided me through and to the bed.
"Sit down," she ordered.
I sighed again and did as she commanded.
"And stop sighing as if this is the end of the world. I'll be gone in a few minutes."
"I'm not sighing as if it's the end of the world," I argued. "But you're overreacting."
She mulled that over for a second as she crouched down by my feet and started to unlace my boots. I tried to pull away but once again she held fast. This time, she tilted her head back to stare at me.
"If I am, then you'll just have to deal with it. I could have hurt you tonight."
"Did you miss the part where Callum said that we're nearly impossible to kill?"
Merry shot me a gimlet eye and went back to untying my boots. "Doesn't matter. There's a first time for everything and it would be just my luck that I would kill one of the few people who have helped me in the last year."
I realized her hands were trembling so badly that she couldn't unknot the ties. In fact, her entire body was shaking so hard that I had no idea how she was staying upright in her squat.
"Hey," I said, reaching down to take her hands in mine. They were cold and tense beneath my fingers. I pulled her up and onto the bed next to me. Without thinking, I put an arm around her. Fine tremors rocked her shoulders as I hugged her to my side. "I should have woken you up instead of just trying to carry you to bed. After everything you've been through, it's not unexpected that you'd react like that to being startled."
She tucked her face against my neck and tears wet my skin.
Unable to stand it, I put my other arm around her and hugged her close. "I'm unharmed and grateful that you're at least able to protect yourself from a vampire or shifter if you need to. Please don't cry."
After a year of reaching deep for strength, Merry broke. Her sobs were silent but they wracked her body in huge waves. Tears soaked the collar of my shirt and her hands clutched my waist before wrapping tight around my middle.
She held me as though I were her anchor in the center of a tempest.
I kept my arms wrapped around her and rocked with her as she cried. I had no idea what to say, so I settled on soothing, wordless murmurs as I stroked her heaving back.
Finally, after long moments, the storm of her weeping subsided and her forehead rested against my neck. Small hiccups occasionally ran through her, but she seemed content to lean against me, so I didn't release her and move away. I couldn't have, even if I wanted to, because her hands were still fisted in the back of my t-shirt.
"If I had met you before," she whispered. "I wouldn't be so fucked up now. So afraid even though I'm beginning to realize you would never hurt me. Things could be..."
She trailed off and sighed against my throat.
