He was being nice. Too nice. He’s never nice, not even when he wants something. Not even when he’d wanted her. She frowns, brows furrowing. She’s pressed against him. Why? She needs to push him away, get him away. He’d hurt her. Just like he’d hurt Luster.
Luster.
She’d meant to tell him. Had she? She couldn’t remember. She just needs to get away before…
A sharp kick in her belly reminds her. Too late. Already too late. Hers now. “Mine.” She doesn’t even realize she whispers it aloud.
Briella. Hers too. Dagger. She loves and hates that name. She’d killed a man with a dagger once. Felt his blood drip over her. Murderer. All to save someone she’d loved. She’d do it again too. Except he’s gone now. Forever lost.
Love always brings pain for her. Always. She is so afraid of that pain. She could love him, if she let herself. She could kill so easily too, if she did.
Briella. The name on his tongue brings her back. She had to find her. Just ahead, he says. It doesn’t seem right, but he sounds so certain. She straightens, stumbles forward several steps. “Briella,” she gasps.
She doesn’t wait for him. Need to find her. But she stumbles, trips. The ice scrapes her knees as she crashes down. Blood. Paint it red.
Her breath rattles as the ice beneath her begins to fall apart, crumbling as though it had never been. But she’d used too much. Given too much. She collapses as her muscles spasm, her belly contracting sharply. She gasps at the pain, head jerking up sharply. She nips at her side, as though the futile gesture would stay the inevitable.
Too soon. Pure determination brings her to her feet, shaky and unstable. She needs to find Dovev. His fault. Had to tell him. She blinks. Bone and black and constellations. She frowns. She needs to tell him. “Yours,” she rasps. What had she needed to tell him again?
Briella. She stumbles forward again, squinting at the beach. Lapping waves. “Where?” No, not right. Not here. She needs to find her.
i see your sins
and i want to set them free
