Page 643 of Coal Hearts

I rocked back on my heels.

Yet another thing I definitely hadn’t expected.

But...I probably should have.

Peter came across as flippant and bold, but wasn’t everyone hiding something in this godforsaken place? All of them just hanging on, surviving, hiding, hoping?

Standing there in a busy kitchen with steam and sugar and salt, I saw everything he’d done his best to hide.

Everything Ily probably saw. Everything mirrored in me.

And all that tenderness inside me welled up to include him.

The guy in love with my girl.

The one man who had the power to rip out my heart if Ily ever chose him.

“You’re not allowed to give up yet,” I whispered, my voice rough.

He laughed under his breath, trying to hide his despair. His brown eyes met mine as he flashed his gloved palms in a sad shrug. “When?”

Fuck.

That one word.

It cut me.

Stepping into him, all those urges to protect my siblings when I was younger surged. I fought the very real need to hug the bastard. “I don’t know. But not yet.”

He sniffed and nodded.

It took him a moment, but his shoulders straightened. “I did not mean to say any of that. What the hell?”

“It’s fine.”

He narrowed his eyes with a flash of rage. “You’re good, I’ll give you that.”

“Good at what?”

“Making people hope.”

I flinched.

“You tortured Ily with that hope when you first arrived. I hated you for that. I still do. Hope is the worst fucking emotion in here and I was perfectly fine before Ily infected me with that disease. She gave me hope. And God, it’s ruined me.” A deeper flush of anger on his face. “You know, I was coping just fine before she came along. Of course, for the first year, I fought. I got my ass handed to me over and over again. But by the time I realised I couldn’t win, Victor started rewarding me. Trusting me. Making me do things I can never undo.”

He shook his head, unable to stop now he’d started. “But the thing about hope is...it’s too fucking powerful to stop once someone dangles it in front of you. It spreads like the flu. It kills the weak and weakens the strong. So I hope to fucking God you’re going to see this through with us, because if you don’t? If you decide the darkness is easier and keeping Ily collared is better than all the other shit that might follow, then you might as well just kill us now because we won’t survive. Not after this.”

His words hovered in the air between us.

I swallowed hard.

I had no idea what to say.

For a moment, I wanted to run again but then I found myself saying, “I get that asking you to trust me when I’m a Master and you’re a slave isn’t easy. But we’re more similar than you think.”

“Yeah, okay.” His rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

“I have shit in my past that I can’t undo as well. The things I’ve participated in...” I shuddered. “I’ll take most of them to my grave.”