Page 93 of Live Like Legends

He let out a small laugh. “Hm, you sound a little like your boyfriend there.”

I rolled my eyes and turned my body so I could scoot up the bed, resting my back against the wall. My head was at his shoulder, but he didn’t look down at me once I was settled. The sound of our mutual breathing was kind of soothing to me.

I lifted my hand, letting shadow and light intertwine in my palm. It felt so easy now, giving my all to the two things I’d thought would never become a united force. The power got a little bigger and began to grow higher, but I snuffed it out by closing my hand. His eyes were wide and alert when I looked up at him. “See? Totally fine.”

He furrowed his blonde brows. “Somehow the use of your hybrid powers equals you being okay in the old noggin.” Reese looked off to the side as if he was contemplating this.

“Is that a question?”

“Uh…well…mmm, no.” He rubbed his thumb and his index finger along his chin. He shrugged at my stunned expression. “So, I was talking to Alex about how her mom is afraid of snakes. How Beetee plans to even talk about that part, let alone the fact that she is Daya’s long lost family member is lost on me…..”

I reared my head back at the sudden change in conversation. I blinked rapidly, shaking my head. His voice trailed off as he watched me.

“What, what’s wrong?”

I ruffled one of my hands through my hair. “You aren’t going to question more about this?”

He scrunched his face up to the side. “About what? Dimitri? Your time in Hell?”

I blew out a breath. “Any of those things.”

He narrowed his eyes, thinking. “Do you want to talk about it?”

It was such a casual question. He was giving me the option to be as open or quiet as I wanted. The way he said it didn’t give me the impression that he didn’t care, but that he caredenoughto let me make my own decisions. Nick had gotten better about giving me space during my recovery while still hovering just the slightest bit. I knew the bruises and scarring made him angry to think about, but he hadn’t pressed to know more.

I didn’t think about it constantly and I knew Nick wasn’t the enemy, so every time I flinched away from him, I wanted to berate myself. I could handle the cut lip and the black eye. I could deal with the bruised cheek and even the raw, reddened skin of my throat. What was continuously racking my brain was the claw mark from Dimitri’s nails. Those left an impression, not only on my flesh but also on my mind.

He had dug them in so deep that I felt the muscles tighten thinking about how my skin broke, about how my blood drenched the area around me as it flooded out of the wound. Ihad been so close to giving in at the end and all these stupid scars, all of that fucking pain I’d endured would have been for…nothing?

I would have fought against him for…. what?

I could have laughed at myself. For what?Power. That was it.

Every touch from the angel I loved along those long claw marks made me wince and it made me feel small. I had pushed Dimitri away and I’d said no, but every single time I’d stood my ground, he showed me all the reasons why resisting was making a mistake.

He showed me the pain of others that I had grown to care about which made my stomach feel like it was in knots because I shouldn’tcarethat much. I shouldn’t care enough to let others be able to cause my pain. That made meweak…didn’t it?

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I saw a hand waving in my face and Reese’s face came into view, concern in his eyes. “Are you okay? Where did you go just now?”

“I…” I started, noticing that I was delicately touching the scarred wound on my arm. I pulled my fingers away and firmly placed them on the bed. “What were you saying?”

He let out a half-hearted laugh. “I asked if you wanted to talk about it?”

“Oh right.” I pressed my lips together, thinking it over. “I don’t know.”

Reese nodded thoughtfully, as if he was considering my words. “Hm…okay. Would you like to tell me what youdoknow?”

I tilted my head to the side, moving my eyes away from him and pressing my back to the wall again. “You really aren’t going to just unload a million and one questions at me, huh?”

Reese huffed. “Listen, maybe Ishouldhave done that shit with Nick. Asked him a bunch of questions and made him tell mewhat’s wrong,maybeI could have changed his outcome. That’s in the past now. You might be surprised to know that most of the time I do pay attention Dani andsurprisingly, you aren’t Nick.” He gave me a look of faux shock. “It is highly unlikely that continuously asking you what’s wrong would get me very far, so all I can really do is either try to keep your mind off of what’s bothering you or allow you to tell me whatever you want to say, if it helps.”

Again, his words came out casual. They rolled off his tongue without an ounce of hesitation. If I didn’t think it would have freaked both of us out, I probably would have hugged him. I stuck my tongue into my cheek when I really looked at Reese. He’d gone to Hell with his best friend to come and find me. He wasn’t complaining to me about it, nor was he boasting about their accomplishment in retrieving me. He was just sitting here…wanting to make me laugh because well—that’s who Reesewas.

I sighed, debating how I wanted to go about this. “I’m going to tell you something and it probably won’t make any fucking sense, but just let me say it and then we can go back to you making a joke about Daya’s distaste for reptiles.”

Reese lifted his lips in a tiny smile at my joke. “Alright, hit me with whatever you got, halfling.” He made himself more comfortable, giving me his full attention. His hazel eyes looked more patient than they ever had. There was a small part of me that thought he might take what I said and run to Nick about it. They were the best of friends and Reese had every right to choose Nick over anyone else.

---