Page 107 of Knight’s Absolution

Her eyes were wide and glistening. His words were hurting her. He wanted to fucking roar his frustration. “Who were you before you came here?” he growled.

Confusion flashed through her eyes.

“Where did you come from?”

“I don’t know—”

“Who were you, Scarlet?”

“I don’t—”

“Think,” he yelled. “Fucking think.”

“I can’t. I’ve tried,” she yelled back, trying to move away again.

No fucking way. “You haven’t tried hard enough.”

“I have…I have tried—”

“Are you a quitter?” he barked, the same words he used to use when they trained. The same words that would make her furious and fight harder, push harder.

And it worked now as well. Anger fired in her eyes, so familiar he struggled to draw breath. “No.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“Nothing,” she said with more strength behind it.

“You are, you’re afraid of what you’ll remember.”

“No!”

She struggled, trying to pull away, and with every moment that passed, there were subtle changes in her expression, in the way she moved her body.

His Scarlet.

She was right there. Right fucking there.

“Quitter,” he yelled.

She growled.

He’d come this far, he had to keep pushing. “Stop being a fucking coward, Scarlet—”

“Fuck you, T, you egotistical dickhead. I don’t know why I mated you!” she yelled.

Words he’d heard many times in the training room, usually right before she’d work even harder to kick his ass, followed by her kissing the hell out of him.

He grinned at her and replied the way he always had. “Because you love me, you fiery wench.”

Her fury was still front and center and her hands shot outward, dislodging his hold on her, easy as that. Exactly how his Scarlet would have done it.

And as soon as he lost his grip, he went under, his spaghetti limbs unable to stop him. He went down with a huge-assed grin on his face. He didn’t float, he sunk like a lead weight. He never was a good swimmer.

Hands hooked under his armpits and he was hauled back up.

Before he could blink the water from his eyes, Scarlet was there, peppering kisses all over his face. His chin, his cheeks, his eyelids, his mouth, tears already running down her precious face.

“I remember. I remember everything,” she said, sobbing and trembling. “Oh god, you found me. You found me.”