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“And thank you for getting her to leave that prick, Aurick!” The inappropriate remark comes from Niles… again.
Before I can flick Niles for not keeping his mouth shut, Kane laughs. Unlike any other noise, it fills me with blind rhapsody. He’s chuckling at Niles, squeezing his eyes shut like he was taken off guard by that comment. I look around and Ruth is giggling with her fingers covering her mouth.
“I’m thankful for that as well.” Kane winks at me. A surge of galvanic energy takes me by surprise, galloping through my bones.
“I think we should have a group hug!” Ruth suggests.
“I don’t think so.” Chekiss swats Niles away from trying to pull him in.
“Me too,” I agree, reaching for Chekiss to join. He sighs dramatically and closes half a circle with Niles on his other side.
I look back at Kane, showing him the empty space between me and Ruth.
Kane raises his eyebrows. “I don’t really do hugs.”
Pfft. That’s a lie. We hug all the time.
“Ohhh, just get in here! You deserve some love after all you’ve done today,” Ruth coos at Kane, then snickers at Niles who is tickling her side as he tugs her closer to him.
Kane glances back at me as I mouth the word, please. He looks away and laughs.
“Okay, but this is the first and last group hug we do, agreed?” Kane looks around at the group, everyone nods in agreement. He closes the gap between me and Ruth, placing his large arm over her tiny shoulders.
My breath hitches. A familiar chill of terror crawling up my back. I’m reminded of the cage, the blinding darkness. And this close contact triggers me. My pulse races under my skin, pounding like a waterfall in my ears. I fight like hell to keep my breathing less than noticeable. This is a trauma response. Hide it. Put it on a leash and lock it away.
I don’t want to worry them. They’ve been through hell too.
“Aw, we just started a tradition, you guys!” Niles grins.
Chekiss grunts. “No, we did not.”
“We agreed this was the first and last time,” Kane reminds him.
An unwanted thought surfaces, sticking thorns in my side, nudging me to the side of doubt. What if I didn’t escape? What if I went mad? It’s entirely possible. I hallucinated DaiSzek. I went off to a meadow. My mind could have collapsed on itself, could have shut down and stopped living.
Either way, I needed this. I don’t care if it’s real or not. I don’t care if I’ve crossed over into insanity.
Kane is gazing down at me with a look of bittersweet relief. Like he knows what’s going on in my head right now. Like he knows this is exactly what I needed after breaking out of hell. I needed a family to come home to. He drops a kiss on the top of my head.
“So, did you two have sex yet?” Niles blurts out like the little monster he is.
Our heads snap up to the pest. “Niles!” I scold. “There was the line back there. Did you see it when you crossed it?” I unhook my right arm from around Chekiss and reach across the circle to shove him, hard.
Now Chekiss is laughing. “You know what that means, Niles? Means you’re sleeping with the black beast tonight. And every other night until you learn to keep those uneducated thoughts to yourself.”
Our circle separates, and I catch Kane giving me a curious look. It’s fleeting but interested. Does he know that Dessin and I were intimate? Of course he does. But is that upsetting to him? But before I can look any deeper, he takes a step away, breaking the trance.
“There’s a spring nearby.” Kane nods his head behind me. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“I can help her.” Ruth touches my shoulder. I resist the urge to jerk away, hating myself for reacting this way after only being captive for four hours. “If you want me to.”
I smile weakly. “Thank you.”
Kane hands us towels and a soap bar, pointing us in the right direction, just down the hill, in the middle of scattered boulders.
The soothing white glow of the moon softens Ruth’s pale skin, smoothing out creases around her eyes, highlighting her freckles. She looks simply… angelic.
We remove our clothes, backs facing each other. I pull my gown off over my head, throwing it to the dirt with a huff.
