She turned. “What?” she snapped.
“You’re spiraling.”
“Go to Hell, you, you?—”
He put his large hands on her shoulders. “Adryel, I’ve been saying your name for the last few minutes, and you’re just now hearing me.”
She inhaled a breath. “They’re coming for me,” she said, a tear escaping her eye. “All those people died because of me.” The emotions of what that meant hit her like an asteroid on a collision course.
That she’d caused all those deaths. It was her fault. They were after her.
How could she?
What was she thinking?
Now, everyone was in danger because of her.
Stron pulled her to him. She hit his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her. “You’re safe.”
“You can’t protect me from them.”
Stron made a sound. A growl, kind of. A guttural sound that reverberated in his chest. She felt the armor on his arms start to move, and extend slightly.
“They will be destroyed before they can try,” he said. His voice had shifted to something that probably should have scared Adryel.
And maybe it would have, if he had confronted her in a dark alley, and wasn’t holding her like he was.
Instead, if anything, it was comforting. Secure feeling.
And that scared her even more.
Because she shouldn’t be feeling safe right now.
There was too much blood on her hands.
Stron touched her cheek. “Little Dots,” he whispered.
She met his gaze. His warm skin almost glistening in the light of this suite they were in. His horns rolled around the side of his face, poking outward on the ends with as close as he was, it felt like he had an armor shield around their faces.
“You’re safe. With me, you are always safe.”
And he leaned down and kissed her forehead.
It was soft and gentle.
And safe.
She believed him.
Which was hard enough for her to accept, but she did. She leaned in and he wrapped his arm around her tighter, and they stood there, him holding her tight. Tears welling in Adryel’s eyes, but not because she was upset, but because she really did feel safe.
‘I’m going to get your shirt wet.”
“I don’t mind,” he said, and he stroked some of the loose strands of her hair that had tumbled down from Baba’s hair style earlier.
He held her for a few more moments, and then slowly backed away. “Now, I need you to do something for me.”
She blinked. “What?”
