I drop to my knees before I even realize I’m moving.
My stomach lurches. My breath catches and won’t come loose.
It’s vile.
It’s vile in a way I can’t name. A complete violation of a body.
Of a child.
This was done to him.
This was done to him.
I can’t look away. But I can’t keep looking either.
Not when I realize there’s more.
Not when I see—god, I can’t even say it. I can’t find the words. There are no words. Just shapes burned into skin that should never hold suchthings.
I press a hand to my mouth. It doesn’t help. Nothing helps.
My body is trembling, and suddenly I feel like I’m freezing from the inside out.
And Kai is shaking. Not just his hands, his entire body is thrashing like he’s trying to claw his way out of his own skin. His shoulders jerk, his spine bows, his legs kick out once, twice. But the guards hold him well, their grips locked around his arms.
I think—
I think he’s crying.
But it doesn’t look like crying. It looks like breaking.
And still, nothing he does gets him free.
Across from him, Gabriel slowly lowers himself to his knees with the staggered, sickly movement. He doesn’t speak. Doesn’t yell again.
He just… reaches out.
And with an honest hand I’ve only ever seen curled into a fist, he traces one of the lines, one of theburns, with the edge of his finger. Slowly. Reverently.
Kai flinches so hard he nearly throws the guards off him.
But Gabriel doesn’t pull away. He just stares. Eyes wide. Face drained of all colours.
And for the first time all night, I see something in Gabriel’s expression that looks like fear.
Not fear of Kai.
Fearforhim.
But it’s too late.
Because Kai is still thrashing.
Still trembling like he’s on fire and no one can put it out.
Gabriel’s hand finally lands on his shoulder. “My boy…” Gabriel breathes, and the words are so soft I think for a moment that I might have imagined them.
“What did theydoto you?” he whispers, his expression tormented.
