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"Don'tapologisefor me," Harvey said with a sneering laugh. "Do you think you're in charge now Emlyn's gone? I bet you were justwaitingfor something like this to happen."
"What?" I laughed in disbelief.
Did he even hear himself?
The whites of Harvey’s eyes showed as he was caught mid-shift. "You've always loved bossing us around, thinking you're better than the rest of us just because you're more powerful. Well, you're not, Malakai. You're just screwed in the head. You're not powerful; you're a fuck up and a thug. You'll never be like Emlyn. He's a man; you're just a knife."
"Tell me what you really think," I drawled, clenching my jaw so I didn't lose my shit. I couldn't tell if I was going to rampage or break down in tears, and I'd be damned if I was shedding a single fucking teardrop in front of strangers.
Fur exploded across Harvey’s body, ripping his clothes, and bones snapped as his beast form finally broke free. His sneer was the last part of him to vanish, and every fucking millisecond of that expression on his face gouged out a part of my heart.
I just stood there, staring as he trampled furniture and fled out the door, a vicious roar shaking the walls.
You're just screwed in the head. You're not powerful; you're a fuck up and a thug. You'll never be like Emlyn. He's a man; you're just a knife.
I swallowed the knot in my throat, not moving, not even breathing. He was right.
And what use was a knife in saving a rose?
CHAPTER17
HALWEN
"Cocksucking motherfucker!" I hissed, snatching my hands back from the bars that trapped us in a cell fuck knows where. There were two lines burned across the middle of each of my palms, like I was a grilled piece of steak. I ground my jaw, breathing hard through my nose as tears built in my eyes.
"Let me see," Emlyn rumbled, but I curled my hands protectively to my chest, tears streaming down my cheeks now. It hurtso damn much,I couldn't think clearly. "Let me see your hands, mate," Em said gently now, holding his palms up for me to place mine into.
"It hurts," I said in a small voice, my bottom lip shuddering.
"Shhh," Emlyn murmured. "I know, I know, Hales. Wane, can you cover her burns with a shadow? It might help soothe the pain."
Em turned when he got no answer, and his shoulders sank.
Wane was pressed into the corner of the cell, his knees to his chest. Only a swath of his face was visible, his bronze skin wan and sickly, his eyes unfocused as he stared at the floor. The rest of him was wrapped in shadows so thick I couldn't see his body.
"I'm okay," I choked out, tears rolling freely. "I'll be okay." I didn't care that the statements contradicted each other. "Can we just—can—"
My hands throbbed so badly I wanted to scream, but I just swallowed the sound and blinked more hot tears free.
"Anything you need," Emlyn murmured, brushing tears off my cheeks with his thumbs. "Just tell me, Hales."
"We need to sit with him. I'll be okay if we just sit with him."
I didn't feel the floor under me as I crossed the cell, didn't feel Em's arm as he supported my back. All I felt was the hot, throbbing agony in my palms. It was as loud and insistent as the heartbeats of my blood magic usually were, only now that was silent and dead, too.
"Is this just pain, or something else?" Emlyn asked when we sat, me between him and Wane.
"I don't know," I breathed, the dark cell blurring. "I don't care."
It didn't matter.
Emlyn pulled me into his arms, brushing his cheek over my hair before he kissed the top of my head. "I know you when you're in pain, Hales. You're loud, you swear a million times a minute, and you get angry. Not hopeless. I think there's something in the bars, some magic to keep us trapped, to stop us even trying to escape."
I shrugged, laying my head on Wane's shoulder. "Then it's working."
Because I knew we'd never get out.
"If I'd used my daggers, I could have killed her," I said numbly. "Aphrodite. I could have killed her, but I used magic. I was stupid. And now we'll die here."
