“Always…” Her eyes fell to where their bodies melted together beneath the water.
“Sorry.”
Kira's eyes closed again. “Please… don't let go yet…”
Not yet. She curled against him, her hands clutching his shirt. Gave herself over to him, trusting him to hold her together, when he didn't understand why she wasn't running.
Zayne dropped the washcloth to wrap her in his arms, letting her tuck her head beneath his chin while he blocked as much of her from the rest of the world as possible.
A sob shookher body. Another.
He drew his knees up to bring her even closer to him, squeezing her and whispering to her. They survived together, broken and lost.
Eventually, her tears quieted, her shaking stilled, and she pushed against his shoulders to look into his eyes, breath falling against his chin. “Thank you.”
“Don't thank me. I did this to you.”
Her soft fingers slid over the back of his neck. “The Phaedra did this to me… Will you help me up? My body feels strange.”
Zayne picked her up and held her weight.
“I think I can stand,” she said.
When he released her, he kept his hands close to her arms in case she fell. Though she looked unsteady, she remained standing. But when her eyes fell to herself and then his shirt, her cheeks flushed.
“I think I can handle this now,” she said.
He nodded. “Be careful.”
“You won't leave, right?” Her bottom lip quivered.
“I won't.”
“Promise.”
“I promise,” he said, backing out of the shower. “I'll be out here cleaning up the room.”
A nod. He looked anywhere but at her while he pulled the curtain closed. Without wasting time, he set to work scrubbing the room and preparing it for her.
She took long enough in the shower for him to set up her new bed. “Kira?”
“I'm okay.”
It must have been hard for her to do anything right now.
“Towels?” Kira asked.
He placed several over the top of the curtain and then cleaned up the footprints he left. The room looked back to normal except for the disaster zone outside of the shower where he had piled bloody clothes and washrags on the ground.
The curtain opened, and she steadied herself against the shower wall, wrapped in one towel, with another draped around her shoulders.
“Your clothes are—”
“It's too hard. It's all too hard.”
“Okay. That's okay.” Zayne took her arm and helped her walk to the bed. After she settled on her side, he covered her with the blankets.
Her hair wet the pillow and stuck to her neck. Mellie and Nadia always twisted theirs up in a towel. Furrowing his brows, Zayne wrapped a towel around her head, rolling it into an ugly lump. Well, that wasn't right.
