My gaze dropped to Rook’s face, and everything snuffed out.
This goddamn girl.
She had no place in my revenge. She wasn’t supposed to haveaffectedme. I’d been fighting the feelings she’d awakened ever since she cowered like the rest of them in the ballroom yet somehow wasn’t like the rest at all.
She stood out.
She wasdifferent.
And it seemed my poisoned heart had quietly forsaken me every time she was near, but now...now my eyes turned traitor too.
My breath caught as I really, truly looked at her.
Black hair as dark as my nightmares, flawless skin almost luminous in the light. For the first time in my life, I noticed little things that’d never been important up till now: the softness of her cheek, the sweep of her lashes, the slight pout of her perfectly pink lips.
Little things that were meaningless but somehow had the power to bewitch me.
I hated it.
I hated that only she could soften my fury and turn me dangerously...tender.
“Wake up,” I ordered. “I need to know if you’re okay.”
She didn’t move.
Cupping her cheek, feeling that unexplainable easing from her presence, I resisted the urge to tap her. “If I leave you alone, will you be functioning by tomorrow?”
No reaction.
Whisper snapped his teeth.
My fingers burned from touching her.
“I need you to be strong,” I muttered, my palm falling from her beautiful face. “I’ll have one shot, and you can’t fuck it up.”
Still nothing.
I drew back, anger crawling through me.
She was the key to prying open this cage.
Up until now, I’d had no qualms about using her but...
What if she didn’t survive?
What if she died tomorrow and I lost her?
I glanced at the dagger in my hand.
If I stood any chance of succeeding tomorrow, it all hinged on her.
“This is for your own good...and mine.” Gritting my teeth, I ran the tip of the dagger over my wrist where countless silver scars existed.
Ashfall blood welled, glossy and red, the entire reason for my misery.
Placing the knife beside Rook’s unconscious form, I grabbed her jaw with one hand and pressed my bleeding wrist to her mouth.
“Swallow and I’ll let you go.”
