Page 41 of Freed By Wrath

“Are you still afraid, beautiful?” I murmur against her. I need to know. To make sure.

“I was never afraid, Isaac.” She says, tentatively.

Silence settles between us again.

“But… You had a panic attack,” I say quietly.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t about the kidnapping itself, as crazy as it may seem.”

“It wasn’t because of us?”

She shakes her head.

“Then what was it?”

For the first time since she walked into my office, she looks away from me, and her shoulders slump.

We’re near, so near, that I can almost swear to feel the moment she decides to close her eyes and take one slow, trembling breath.

“…Home.”

I frown.

“What?”

“You said you’d take me home.” Her voice is barely a whisper now. “And I realized…”

She laughs once. “…I don’t know where that is anymore.”

The room suddenly feels impossibly small.

“I don’t have a home to go back to, Isaac.” She looks at me again. “I don’t even know if I ever did.”

Everything inside me stops. Because for the first time tonight… I’m not afraid of the consequences. Not anymore. Because she was never afraid of us. She was afraid of having nowhere left to belong.

And somehow… That hurts more than anything else she’s told me so far.

Before I can stop myself, my other hand reaches the other side of her face, cupping her, and I brush away the new tears falling down her face.

She doesn’t pull away. No. She doesn’t even flinch.

She simply looks at me and relaxes in my hold. Waiting. Expecting. Hopeful.

I should step back, give her space, let her process and heal, and—

“Can you kiss me, Isaac?” she pleads.

I don’t answer.

I finally close the distance slowly, giving her every chance to change her mind.

She doesn’t take it.

My hands cup her face, thumbs brushing the last tears from her cheeks, and I feel her exhale against my mouth—warm and trembling and finally, finally letting go. The leather of the mask presses cool against her forehead where we touch, and she doesn’t pull back from it.

She leans in.

That’s all it takes.