Page 44 of Creatures that Breathe

The moment I tell him “Yes,” my legs give out beneath me.

He doesn’t catch me because I don’t fall. My weight is already strung along the muscle of his arm banded around me, the butt of his knife presses into my side, and I like it. I feel safe, I feel found and seen.

“It’s alright.” His silky rumble drifts over my skin. “Closer’s better.” To assert his point, he tugs tighter, plastering me against him. He smells like smoke and blood and dirt, and I inhale deeply, all the fight abandoning me.

He came for me.

I allow myself to go limp against him, trembling with adrenaline. As the rain and sea pummel us, I realize being held in Cross’s arms feels preternaturally right. As if we’ve done this before. In another lifetime.

“I’ve got you now,” he murmurs against my temple. “How badly are you hurt?”

My knees are scratched and raw, my skin burns from the cold, and I must be crying or the rain’s gone hot on my cheeks. All in all, it could be far worse. I shake my head against his chest.

“Use your words, Leni.”

“I’m fi—”

“If you say fine, I won’t ask again, I’ll just search you. Thoroughly.” His thumb skims lightly along the curve of my nape. “Please.”

Please must be a secret passcode into my mind because I just say it. The truth. After subterfuge and coyness and covering tracks, I burst, “Draven found me.”

“Who?”

His heartbeat is like syrup under my ear. Slow and sticky. Didn’t skip a beat when he killed Odren.

“Who found you?” Cross repeats, forehead sinking close enough to burn mine. “Leni, information is crucial here. Consider your favor done at the first opportunity, on the honor of me and my name, not any guard. Who found you?”

I try to steady my voice, but it trembles as I speak. “He … I wasn’t fast enough. I can’t escape.” I pull back slightly. “I—whose blood is that?” It’s not his. It’s not cherries and metal.

It’s green. Unmistakably Gorgon. Odren, I realize slowly. On instinct, I inhale, and there, underneath Cross’s scent is a bright, fruity note that makes my stomach churn.

“I counted eight men converging here,” Cross says, head in the battle. Is that all of them?”

“You killed a Gorgon,” I mutter, feeling light-headed.

“He pulled your hair,” Cross returns flatly.

That smell. I sway. “I don’t feel good.”

“We’re going to shoot now.” There’s a new gun appears in his hand, matte and boxy. He cocks it against his cheek. “Alright? Leni? Hey.” He jostles me. “Look at me. Breathe.”

I shut my eyes. “I’m going to be sick.”

Under my palm, his heart stutters like a lit fuse kissing a jug of gasoline. “Are you hurt? Are you in pain?”

“Yes.” Yes, everywhere. Every breath and step.

And I’m exhausted and losing. And that smell.

He pinches my chin, forcing me to look at him. “I’ll fix—”

“Right flank!”

Noise explodes in my ear.

A bullet rams into Cross’s shoulder at the exact moment Lev shouts.

Cross grunts as if the hot metal boring into his tissue and bone is a splinter. He swears something foul under his breath as he releases me, turning his back to shield me. “Stay down!” he yells. “Close your eyes!”

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