Cassian rises.
“Because I wanted to be alone with her, Cassian,” Nathaniel says. No apology. No shame. “Just her. Just me. For once.”
Cassian blows a slow breath out. The posture stays rigid, but something inside him loosens. Then he looks at me.
His thumb brushes along my cheek, gentler than a man that size has any right to be.
“Skye… he didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“No,” I manage. Then I let a crooked smile slip. “Not more than you did last time, anyway.”
That shuts him up so effectively it could be a spell.
Color climbs Cassian’s throat like he’s remembering exactly what he did to me.
How I sounded.
How I begged.
A weak, wrecked laugh scrapes out of me. “You’re both… the worst.”
Out of the three, Talon is the gentlest. Which is hilarious, really. The man who’d fuck on a battlefield if only he could ended up the softest by default.
“Are you a bit calmer now?” I ask Cassian, curling in on myself and tugging a blanket over my body.
Cassian’s mouth tightens.
“Calmer? Nope.” He shakes his head once. “I still think we should burn this entire world down.”
“Is that so?”
He looks better now. Or… at least the actively murderous aura has dialed down fromkill everythingtokill strategically.
“It’s just…” He drags a breath in. “Something happened that made me swallow it down for now.”
“Oh?” I sit up straighter, grimacing when my thighs tremble. “Rhea?”
“Worse. But you need to see it. And… Talon’s still losing his shit.”
Oh, man.
I try to stand up. My muscles protest violently, trembling with every small movement. The blanket slips. Cassian swears under his breath and yanks it back up.
“I’m fine,” I croak.
Cassian gives me a look so pointed it could cut bone.
I am very much not fine.
“Sure,” he mutters. “You look extremely fine.”
Heat coils in my stomach.
So grumpy.
“She is fine,” Nathaniel says. “Her parasympathetic system has finally kicked in. Cortisol is dropping. Heart rate elevated…” His eyes flick to mine, catching the aftershocks still rippling through me. “…but not dangerously so. You should be thanking me.”
Cassian rounds on him. “Thanking you? For what?” he snaps. “For wringing her out until she can’t fucking walk?”
