Page 236 of Rain of Shadows and Endings

“Do you want something to eat?” he asked her, leaning against the opposite counter.

“No.”

“Something to drink?”

“No.”

“Do I…” He swiped a hand down his face, sighing. “Do I need to heal a hangover?”

That had her dragging her eyes to him. It was the first time she’d looked directly at him, and he sucked in a breath. He could finally see her clearly in the light and that was violet ringing her grey eyes. Not around the pupils like it had before, but around the outer edges of her irises.

And it wasn’t fading.

“I did not drink any wine,” she replied in that same monotone voice. “I know I have my vices, but even I am above lapping wine off the floor like a hound.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that’s what you did,” he replied, his fingers clutching at the counter behind him, grateful she was speaking. “I’m just trying to figure out what happened.”

“You locked me in the wine cellar.”

“I—”

“You locked me in a wine cellar, despite knowing that’s how I was handled at the Estate. Despite knowing I do not like enclosed spaces. Despite knowing that it would—” She stopped abruptly, those violet rings glowing brighter. Her voice had risen with every word, but when she spoke again, it was once again void of feeling. “You locked me in the wine cellar.”

“How did the wine end up on the floor?”

“The bottles broke.”

“You spent the entire time in the dark?”

“Was it dark?”

“The lights were shattered, Tessa.”

“I didn’t notice.”

“You didn’t…notice?” he repeated, perplexed.

“Shadows are cunning, don’t you think? The light doesn’t realize the shadows are circling until there’s nowhere for them to go. It’s either join the shadows, or drown in the darkness.”

He didn’t know what to say to that.

She’d fallen silent again, starting to pick at the cuts on her arm, and Theon moved forward, closing his hand around her fingers. “I’ll take care of it, Tessa.”

“Once again, I need tending to because of you,” she murmured.

And while it sounded more like she was speaking to herself than him, he still felt the words in the depths of his being. Another person he’d promised to protect, only to fail.

He looked down at where he held her hand. Her nails were broken, cracked and bleeding.

“What happened to your hands, Tessa?”

“I couldn’t find a way out. There were no windows. No cracks. No where to dig…”

She trailed off as Theon realized she had tried to claw her way out of the cellar.

Luka reappeared, two forceps in one hand along with a few towels, but he also had a robe.

“You should get out of that dress, little one,” he said.

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