‘You’re to come back to church. And you’re never to stepfootout of line again. Do you hear me?’
‘I … hear you?’
‘Good,’ said Ava – walking them away with her chin held high until they could turn the corner, and duck into one of the alleyways tucked back from the street. She followed it, dragging Damien with her, winding with it back and forth until the sounds of people and carriages had faded, until they were alone in the cool gloom.
Chapter Twenty-Four
It was only then that Damien turned to her – green eyes bright and wide and …angry.
‘What thedevilwas that?’
Ava leaned against the wall, for her breath scraped in her chest like glass paper. Her lips felt cold, her skin, too – and when she tried to speak again her words dissolved into a shuddering cough.
‘Ava?’ His expression faltered. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing,’ she croaked. ‘I just …’ She tried to clear her throat, and sank into another fit of coughing. ‘I get winded sometimes.’
‘Ah.’ He braced one hand on the wall above her shoulder – green eyes searching. ‘One of the boys at school had that. Got it whenever he had to run. Just … lift your head.’
She did so, looking up into his eyes. They were such a beautiful green – in some lights they looked bright, like sun-dappled leaves – but here, in this gloom, they looked like the depths of a lake.
‘Now breathe through your nose. As gently as you can.’
Breathing had never felt intimate before – but somehow it did, standing here with him. He was close enough that she could see the flecks of dried blood that’d snagged on hisstubble, could see how his cheek was reddening slowly, each of her fingers becoming its own, distinct shape.
‘I’m sorry for slapping you,’ she said softly, the words coming out a little better now. A little more even. ‘I hadn’t intended for it to be quite so hard.’
‘You shouldn’t have intervened,’ he said, not moving away. He was looking at her as though she were something fragile – something that could break. ‘You should’ve just kept walking.’
‘If I hadn’t, you’d be in far worse shape than you are now.’
She watched him swallow. Watched the muscle in his jaw tighten. ‘True. Although I must admit, I’m … I’m a little impressed.’ He looked at her, his gaze making her pulse skitter. ‘There was a fierceness in you, Ava. Courage.’
She let out a short breath, a half-laugh. ‘I barely remember what I said.’
‘I remember every word,’ he said, still looking at her – as though he wasn’t just admiring what she’d done, but who she was when she did it. He looked …charged. As though a current had sparked through him – and the longer she looked at him, the more she wondered whether it was sparking through her, too. ‘What was that about Paris?’
‘I … honestly. I don’t know. It just … came out.’
‘It was genius, Ava – gathering a crowd. Brilliant, in fact.Youwere brilliant.’
She wanted to brush it off – wanted to retreat into something safe and sharp – but her skin still fizzed from the rush of it all.
Fierce. Brilliant.
She hadn’t felt either of those things in a long time. Not really. But if he’d seen them … then maybe they weren’t entirely gone.
‘Still,’ he said, his hand sliding from the wall as he came to lean beside her. ‘You could’ve been hurt.’
‘Youwerebeing hurt,’ said Ava, studying him out of the corner of her eye.
‘Perhaps I deserved it,’ said Damien, his gaze still upwards – and she followed it. To the rooftops that clustered above them, and the washing that hung in lines between them.
‘You know what my mother always used to tell my brother?’ Ava asked.
Damien shrugged.
‘Seek out trouble, and you shall always find it.’
