The wounds on my face throb in time with my heartbeat. I can feel the blood crusting in the gouges, pulling at my skin every time I move. Haven marked me tonight—marked me in a way that might scar.
As if I need the reminder of what a monster I am.
I’ve spent so long believing I was the one holding all the cards. The puppet master, the architect, the one who decides how the game is played. The one who ended it when things didn’t go my way.
But Haven just showed me how easily those cards can scatter.
And Kai…he showed me something worse.
He showed me myself. Young and terrified, trying to outrun a truth that caught him anyway.
I was cruel because his fear disgusted me.
Becausemyfear disgusts me.
The door swings open, and Haven steps through first, her slight frame silhouetted against the moonlight. She’s got her arm around someone—supporting them, guiding them.
Kai.
He’s pale, sweating despite the cold, his eyes red-rimmed as he refuses to meet mine. He’s trembling so badly I can see it from here.
But he came back.
Theybothdid.
My chest is so tight, it feels like I’m leagues under water.
“Don’t fuck this up,”both my wolves growl in unison.
For once, I intend to listen to both of them.
Haven guides Kai closer. His shoulders slump, and he’s making a point of not looking at me.
I don’t blame him.
Haven stands beside Kai with her hand on his back, rubbing small circles between his shoulder blades. The gesture is instinctive, like she doesn’t even have to think about it.
“Well?” Haven’s eyes narrow.
Right.
The apology.
I clear my throat. “I’m sorry. I…fucked up.”
Haven’s expression hardens. “That’s it?” she asks dryly. “You with your big brain, and your fucking psychology degree, andthat’sthe best you could come up with?”
I let out a half-groan, half-growl. “What do you want from me?”
She crosses her arms. “You left out the part about you being a fucking cunt, and how you’re never going to speak to him like that again.”
I grit my teeth.
Apologies feel like handing someone a weapon and asking them to stab me with it. Every instinct I have screams against this kind of vulnerability. Thisweakness.
But Kai is standing three feet away from me, so familiarly broken. And I’m the one who broke him.
I move closer—at eye level with him if he’d only lift his goddamn head.
