Page 98 of A Violet Obsession

She looks away, just a slight drop of her eyes to the floor, a thing most people would miss. I don’t. I see everything about her now, whether or not I want to.

“Finn, I couldn’t⁠—”

“Yes, you could have. You should have.” My hands curl into fists. “Now they have both of us.”

Her head snaps up. Exhaustion combined with disbelief, like I’ve missed the obvious.

“They were going to kill you.”

I knew it the second I told her to run.

It would have been worth it.

“I’m always ready to die.”

She flinches.

Fuck, I didn’t mean it to come out like that.

“Go change.”

Yeah. Much better.

After a moment, she gathers the clothes and slips into the bathroom.

A chirp snaps me out of it. Hera winds around my ankle, tail high, vibrating with feline judgment.

“I don’t want to hear it.”

She chirps again.

“I know, okay?”

I crouch and scratch behind her ears. She shoves her skull into my palm.

“Glad you made it, Demon.”

She prances off to inspect her dishes, sniffs, and eats as if being abducted by a cult is normal.

I peel my shirt off—dried sweat and blood tugging at my skin—and ease it over my head with a slow breath through my teeth. I’m standing in my boxer briefs, taking inventory in the mirror, when the bathroom door opens.

Lily gasps.

I turn before I think about hiding the extent of my injuries. Her eyes trace over me, and every place they land throbs hotter.

Deep purple bruising blooms down my left ribs, and my shoulder isn’t inclined to rotate. In addition to my damaged face, there is a dark line at my throat where a rifle butt caught me.

Her face crumples for half a second before she wrestles it back under control.

“It looks worse than it is.”

Her expression says she thinks I’m full of shit. She’s not wrong.

“They left a first-aid kit.” She sets her folded clothes on the bed. The gray outfit hangs loosely on her—soft pants, sleeveless top. Her hair is damp at the temples where she splashed her face.

“I can handle it.”

“You can barely lift your left arm.”