“Why?”
I looked back at him, his eyes scanned the walls before meeting my gaze.
“Remember the communal room they used as a marketplace?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s not as it used to be.”
“Did you burn it?”
Despite all my anger with the sisters, I did not want any one to take an innocent life. Mahin was a terrible person, but there were so many kids in the compound.
“No, just crushed a couple of things and destroyed their ceiling.”
“I don’t think we can ever go back,” I breathed.
“Fuck no! I’m not going back there!”
When we approached the pool, the dragon’s body had turned into a skeletal mound.
The beast still watched the edge of water with its empty eye sockets. I shrugged, remembering that endless night.
“What happened here?” Victor muttered, moving his head toward another set of crawler’s remains.
“You don’t want to know.” I placed my torch on the stand and started to pull off my suit.
Finally, I could concentrate on all the injuries I got from my short time at the Scars’ compound. My neck was severely bruised, and every time I opened my mouth, pain seemed to settle even deeper. The muscles of my shoulders, my ribs, the entire side of my body, were screaming in pain.
But Victor had also been injured. I looked up at him. He had done his best to take one side of his flying suit off his shoulder but struggled with the other side. He sunk his teeth into his lower lip, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Let me help you.” I moved closer, tugging on the edge of his suit.
My fingers brushed against his collar bone and the heat burned my own skin. I kept my attention on my task, but I could notforget that I was undressing him. I was embarrassed enough as it was, especially because this time, Victor was conscious, and he was watching me. Silence stretched between us.
I could physically feel his gaze travelling from my face to the silk undershirt that barely covered my own skin. I wondered if he still thought about me, because I thought about him all the time. His words back in Darragh, everything Alina had told me about us.
I helped him out of his flying leathers. He has always been incredibly handsome. I loved his hair, lightened by the sun, his gray eyes, the shape of his dark eyebrows. I swallowed, trying hard not to stare at the lean muscles of his arms and back. The body of a warrior. Every line, every inch of Victor was earned by fights and extreme body exertion. He was difficult to deal with, so stubborn, and opinionated, but every time I needed help, he was there. So much so that I could not remember my life before meeting him.
“I got it from here,” Victor said when I lowered his suit all the way to his waist.
I could feel the blood rushing to my face and within moments, I was on fire: my cheeks, my forehead, even my ears. If I went a little farther, I could repeat the scene in the compound when I touched his...Damn it!
“Frid?”
Victor’s voice returned me back to reality.
“Huh?”
“Are you going to be alright?”
“Why?”
“Stop lusting over me.” Victor kicked off his boots.
“What? You wish.”
He smirked, removing his suit the rest of the way. My eyes landed on the inked design I had seen before that was just below his hip bone. Three swirls of black were clearly visible on his skin.
