Page 15 of The Withering Dawn
What was I doing? I should have left the cell, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. I needed to stop the bleeding and get everything under control, including myself.
Once her hand was tightly bound, my eyes locked on hers again like she was a shiny pearl and I was a foolish trout. That raw look had returned as if she was going to weep, but she did not. Not even a tear glistened, but the redness made the green in her irises look otherworldly.
Stupid. I was being stupid.
Behind me, the cell gate was wide open. I had never made so many mistakes in such a short time, but she seemed to strip me of all reason.
My gaze dropped to her lips as they parted to let in a deep breath and that’s when I made another horrifying realization. My hand flew up, covered in her blood, and I grasped her chin hard enough to makeher wince. I pressed my fingers to her cheeks, forcing her to open her mouth, only to find that it was not as empty as it had been the day before.
“You have a tongue,” I said.
She whimpered, struggling against me, but despite what she was, she was still starved and small. Her strength was barely what it should have been.
“Please,” she said.
The sound of her voice went straight through me like a ripple through a pond. It was so gentle and sweet. I wondered if that was her monstrous power trying to overwhelm me and shoved away from her, gawking. She hugged her hand to her chest, watching me like I was going to lunge back at her and drive my knife into her mouth.
“How long have you had a voice?” I asked.
“Only hours.” Her tone was breathy and soft like speaking took too much energy. “Don’t sell me. I won’t hurt anyone.”
“I cannot be sure of that, muñequita. I do not know you.”
Finally, those reddened eyes began to shine with tears.
“You are different, Nazario,” she whispered. “I believe you will be the one to realize I am not to be feared.” She tore the makeshift bandage off her hand, the deep cut in her palm facing me. “I bleed as you do. I feel as you do. I plead as you did in your dreams last night.”
I drew away from her, the shock of her words making my heart tremble. A part of it, anyways. The part that was still stuck in that great big mansion that felt smaller than a box for years.
I planted my hands against her shoulders and drove her back against the wall again. “I do not plead for anything,” I snarled.
“Why have you not killed me?”
“Because…” I trailed off, caught off guard by the constant shift in directions. “Because you pulled me from the wreckage.”
“But you’ll sell me,” she said flatly. “A worse fate than death.”
“I have not decided.”
That was a lie.
She paused a moment, taking a few more breaths.
“Who is Leo?” she asked, making my pulse hitch.
“What?”
She grabbed my wrist with her free hand, turning it over and brushing her thumb across a bracelet of marred skin beneath my leather cuff.
“Did he do this?”
I pulled my hand away and instead grabbed hers with harsh force, tightly retying her bandage with another curse.
“No.”
“Then who did? Antonio?”
Anger reared its ugly head and my hand lifted to collar her throat by its own volition. Aeris immediately stiffened, her hands clutching at my wrist. Panick flashed across her eyes and it almost knocked me backwards.
