Page 86 of Cruel Saints (Lochkelvin Academy)

My brows lower.

Is he beingfuckingserious?

All this stuff, getting me on my own, acting like I’m his whole world if only for a moment…

It’s all a ruse.

I raise my foot and shove him sharply in the sternum.

Finlay staggers into the blackboard.

“Whit thehell?” He massages his chest, glaring at me. “I just want answers, Jessa.”

And there it is.

“Yeah,” I snap in a voice as bitter as acid. “At least you finally said it.That’swhat you came here for.”

His shoulders sag. “I didnae mean—”

“You want to know what I saw?”

Even enraged, I don’t have it in me to lie. Not to Finlay. Not when he’s staring at me with wide eyes, like he’s hanging onto my every word.

I’m so stupidly weak for him.

He makes me stupid.

“I saw myself,” I tell him, a vicious spit. I’m seething. I can’t believe he just wanted to use me for information. I’m fizzing with indignant rage. Every muscle of my body is tense and uncooperative, like my nerves are still stunned. “I saw my body hanging from every damn tree in that forest. Each one with a rope around its neck.That’swhat I saw. So if you don’t mind—”

I go to slide off the desk but Finlay pins me into place. His questioning green eyes are wider than I’ve seen them before, and there’s something about them that’s heartbreaking to look at.

So I don’t. I close my eyes, trying to will him away.

“Ye saw whit?” Finlay asks in a tight voice.

“You heard me.”

And then he does something so incredibly unexpected that all thoughts leave my head.

Finlayhugsme.

He holds me tight. He gathers me into his broad arms and holds me in place for long, long minutes. My mind goes quiet and the world stills, though my heart begins to pick up its racing speed again.

I don’t fight it.

In fact, I feel myself leaningin.

I don’t know why I let him hold me like that. I don’t know why I let myself beheld.

All I know is that it’s the safest I’ve felt in Lochkelvin since being here, wrapped in the arms of one of its chiefs.

Finlay positions his chin on top of my head, tightening his grip around my shoulders.

“Ye’re stronger than ye think.” It’s almost inaudible, but it’s there. It’s there forme, and it’s not the words I assumed he’d say.

Assumed he’d ask.

Did you ever…

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