Page 38 of Vows of Ruin

She turns to face me, and for a second, I think she might fall apart in my arms.

“I just want to clean up,” she says quietly. Her voice isn’t shaking, but I can hear the fracture beneath it. “And I need a few minutes alone. Please.”

I nod once, slowly. I know if I press her now, she’ll either shatter, or kill something. Maybe both. So I let her go. I stand at the bottom of the stairs, staring after her, praying that whatever Sebastian just broke inside her… isn’t the piece she needed to survive him.

Chapter Sixteen

Wrenley

I scrubbed until the water ran cold. Until my skin stung. Until the soap slipped uselessly from my fingers. But it’s still there. The dirt’s gone, but the shame clings to me like smoke. I stand at the vanity wrapped in a towel, water dripping from my hair in slow trails, pooling at my feet. The mirror doesn’t lie.

Finger-shaped bruises wrap around my biceps and throat, dark and cruel. My lip is swollen, the edge cracked and bloodless. I tug the towel tighter around my chest and pull the edge back from my thigh.

A bite. Jagged and crimson. A double-arc pattern, two identical crescent moons carved into my skin, just above the curve of my hip. Disbelief hits fist. Then rage.

I don’t even remember him doing it. He must’ve done it when I was out cold. After he choked me. After he smiled in my face and promised to rip my world apart one piece at a time.

The doorknob clicks behind me, I whirl, pulling the towel tighter around me.

It’s Liam.

His eyes scan me instantly, jaw tightening as they land on the way I clutch the towel to my leg.

“What was that?” he asks, voice low. Controlled. But only barely.

“Nothing.” I try to sound casual. I fail.

He takes a step closer. “This only works with no secrets, remember? I can see the blood running down your leg.” His voice drops even lower. “Show me.”

I suck in a breath. “You have to stay calm.”

“I will.”

I don’t believe him, but I drop the towel anyway. It hits the floor with a quiet thud. His eyes go wide. His face doesn’t change, but something inside him does. It’s his posture. In the way his hands curl into fists at his sides. In the dangerous stillness of him, forged from war. Outwardly he looks calm, but I can see the battle behind his eyes. The barely restrained violence.

“Liam…” I whisper, trying to pull his eyes back to mine. “Doc gave me antiseptic before I came up. I was going to take care of it—”

He’s shaking his head before I finish. “You shouldn’t be the one treating it. You shouldn’t be alone right now.”

I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly cold despite the steam still lingering in the room. “I didn’t want anyone to see. I didn’t even want to show you or Max.”

“Why?” his voice breaks a little, and it guts me.

“Because I feel…” my throat tightens. “Like if you see it, it makes it real. Like I let him do it.”

“You didn’t let him do anything,” he says immediately, fiercely. “You survived him. That’s all that matters.”

“I don’t even know how I was going to hide it.” I whisper, tears stinging my eyes now. “With us always… like we are.”

He steps forward and pulls me into his arms, not caring that I’m still damp, still shaking. He presses his forehead to mine and kisses me, soft, aching and reverent.

“You’re safe now, Little Warrior. And you don’t have to hide.”

I nod, swallowing back the emotion rising like a wave in my chest.

“I’m going to get Doc,” he says, brushing a hand down my spine. “You get dressed. I’ll be right back. I have to tell Max too.”

“Okay.” I watch him go. Then I look at myself again in the mirror. I don’t look like the girl from before. I look like someone who’s seen hell and walked out alive.