They had die. It had to be over. I had to do it now.
The hatch wrenched open and firm hands latched hold of me. I screamed as my captor dragged me out of the hole then his palm slammed over my mouth half a second later, stifling the noise and making me flail like mad.
I kicked and punched and fought for my life as he pushed me down on the bed, laying his whole body over mine so I couldn’t move an inch. His weight was solid, unmovable. His powerful muscles rippled against my small frame as I thrashed as hard as I could.
I was trapped again, never to be free-
“Look at me, baby doll,” he commanded and his deep voice rang through my skull, forcing me to take notice.
I blinked heavily, my breathing slowing as I found myself staring into Nicoli’s warm bronze eyes. A breath of utter relief escaped me as the fears holding me hostage slid away into the recesses of my mind. I wanted to crawl into those eyes and live in the safety that resided there. Everything about him was so sturdy; he was a wall that could resist the fiercest tide. Indestructible. And he had stood between me and The Five. He’d kept me hidden, he’d sent them away.
I relaxed beneath his weight, reaching up with shaking hands to run my fingers over his brow, his cheeks, the faint scar running up in a straight line toward his ear. His lips parted and he suddenly drew away from me, scraping a hand through his hair as he stood above me. The absence of his weight on me left a hole in my chest. Something about being held down by him wasn’t like it had been with my torturers. He’d done it to protect me. And though I could withstand the full wrath of The Five if I had to, I couldn’t remember ever being protected from anything. It was strange, wholly alien to me. I was meat left for the crows to pick at. I wasn’t to be looked at like that. Like I meant something, was something, am something.
I pushed myself up to sit on the bed as he strode across the room to the largest window, twitching the curtain aside for a second before dropping it again.
“The Cutters had you?” he questioned in a severe tone even though he already knew the answer to that.
He turned sharply as I hugged my knees to my chest, his calm eyes suddenly alight with hellfire. I had the feeling this safety I felt around him wasn’t what other people usually felt in his presence. He was the sort of man people ran from in the street. The sort that could even unsettle men like The Five.
“Why? What did they want from you, baby doll? Did they…?” His eyes trailed to my bare legs and his eyes darkened to deadliest nightshade before he turned away again.
My throat burned with the need to answer, but I couldn’t force anything out. I couldn’t decipher what he was thinking as he started to pace the room and I watched him move back and forth in front of the fire for what felt like a thousand turns.
I sensed his rage like a scent in the air and I slipped out of bed, unsure what to do, but I was going to follow my instincts and see where they led me.
I moved behind Nicoli as he paced toward the window again and pressed my hand to his back. He stilled under my touch and I slowly wound my arms him, pressing my cheek to his bare skin and closing my eyes as his hazelnut scent washed over me. He was so warm as if the fire I’d seen blazing in his eyes lived beneath his flesh too. I was frozen in comparison, my skin cool against his. I wondered if that was because I was just a shell of the girl who had once lived within this skin and bones. Her echo sometimes called to me faintly from afar. But this body had no past, no future. Up until now, it recognised nothing but pain.
He rested his hands over mine on his stomach and a weighted sigh heaved through his chest. “I wish you could talk to me.”
I frowned, pulling my hands free of him as I thought of a way I could do so.