Page 124 of Relapse

“And I almost lost you, again.”

That shuts something inside me down for half a second.

Because he’s not wrong.

Because the second he says it, everything flashes behind my eyes again.

The rave.

The screaming.

Mina’s arm in that man’s grip.

Gunshots tearing through the parking lot.

Dagger showing up like violence with a heartbeat.

“I’m fine,” I say.

Lie.

Complete fucking lie.

We both know it too.

My hands shake as I kneel carefully in front of him, trying to focus on the wound instead of the way my chest feels like it’s caving in. I touch his face again, softer this time, thumb brushing lightly over the bruise darkening along his jaw.

His jaw flexes beneath my fingertips.

Exhaustion finally starts creeping into his expression now that the adrenaline is wearing thin. Not weakness. Never that. Just the brutal weight of surviving catching up to him all at once.

“You scared me,” I whisper.

Something shifts in his eyes immediately.

Not softer.

Worse.

Guilty.

Dagger reaches for my wrist gently, careful despite the blood on his hand, and presses his mouth to the inside of it. The kiss is small. Warm. Almost too tender for the state of us.

“I shouldn’t have left you alone.”

That breaks me.

Not loudly at first.

Just a sharp little fracture straight down the middle of my chest.

I shake my head, eyes burning before I can stop them.

“No.” My voice comes out thin. “No, don’t do that.”

His brows pull together.

“Blair—”