I bite my bottom lip and his eyes flare. We are both so sore, my body feels as if it has been thrown into a blender and put on high, but the heat of desire sparks inside of me all the same.
And I cannot deny him.
Not anymore.
I shift forward, water lapping up the sides of the tub, my body half-risen, my nipples tight points. Sullen glances down at my breasts, and I grin so wide, it hurts my face.
But then he frowns.
And I glance down.
One half of my breast and all along my sternum is splotchy black and blue, edged with pink. It looks like an oil spill, the size of my palm. And as I stare at it, I feel the pain, too, as if now, looking away from my prince, I am no longer numb from brutality.
My throat grows tight, itchy. My body feels shaky.
It is as if now that the adrenaline has worn down, I am realizing, for the first time, what has happened today.
Sanford.
Stein.
I killed them.
Klein.
Sullen ripped his jaw apart with his bare hands, and suffocated him with a gun.
We burned bodies today.
We may die at the hands of Writhe.
My father never came.
Cosmo never heard an apology from his own. We don’t even know if Klein knew he had a son. Everything is done, yet nothing is at all.
Exhaustion grows heavy in my limbs. I am halfway to Sullen, my knees pressed to the bottom of the tub, but it feels as if I might collapse.
I do not think I can go much further. I do not think I will make it. I want to be strong for him, because I know he has suffered far worse than I have. But the bruise on my chest from being kicked, the weakness in my bones, the tiredness of my muscles, I do not think I can do it.
And he catches me.
At the right time, when I need him, he is there.
He pulls me to his chest. He cradles me like a baby in his arms.
Our bodies are close, my head against him, his arms beneath me, holding me tight, firm enough to hurt, but it is exactly what I need. I feel how he vibrates beneath me, as if the sight of me injured has undone him too.
He bows his head. His lips are pressed to my temple.
“Karia,” he whispers.
I squeeze my eyes closed tight, both hands on his chest as we cling to one another in the bathtub. I once imagined this impossible. Now, I cannot imagine anything else.
Just this.
Justus.
“You.”That is all he says, and it sounds as if the word alone undoes him. The love in it, the fierce protectiveness, the agony, the regret, the longing, it is really all I need.
