Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
A tiny smile flitted across her lips. “It feels easier to breathe. Like the world has opened up. Like I can see forever and the sky has no end.”
I think I got what she was getting at. The dense woods and soaring trees in New York had been beautiful but suffocating. Rising up and closing in. Gorgeous but disorienting cages you couldn’t see through.
I thought it was the way Aria always had to have been.
Caged.
Closed in because her parents had been terrified of her getting out.
“And that’s exactly what we’re going to find for you—a world without end. One with possibility.”
When I said it, she peeked over at me with affection on her face.
At her expression, little bolts of lightning ignited inside me in a firestorm of greed.
Fuck, it was painful not to reach out and touch her, but I kept it under lock and key, putting one foot in front of the other.
The doors swept open as we approached, and I grabbed a cart. We went directly to the toiletries. “Get whatever you need.”
Aria hesitated, reservations flying through her as she chewed at that decadent bottom lip. I didn’t think she had the first idea of what she was doing to me.
Finally, she asked, “How do you keep paying for everything?”
I’d never missed the way her eyes had creased in speculation every time I’d pulled out a wad of cash to pay for a motel room or food.
“Money is not an issue.” I couldn’t help but bite it out.
Confused concern twisted across her brow. Aria felt it. Sensed it. The undercut of what I’d said. I wasn’t ashamed of taking from the corrupt. Wasn’t ashamed of putting a permanent stop to their misdeeds so they didn’t have a chance to hurt anyone again. But I wasn’t sure that Aria could stomach the details of it, either. Or maybe I was only protecting myself. Because I didn’t want her to see who I really was. What came so easily for me.
“How is that?” she pressed.
Uncertainty gripped my chest, but I took one step closer to her, my words held in a whispered secret. A shallow piece I was offering because there were some things that I just couldn’t keep from her. Had a hunch that she had a direct view to them swirling like decay deep inside me, anyway.
“I take from those who only cause harm. Those who have no good left. Those I’ve stripped of their power because they use that power to inflict pain. Their greed is their ultimate demise.”
I knew it was cut with a warning, and I’d fully expected her to flinch. To back away. Instead, she blinked with a soft nod.
Like she fully got it. Understood it. Like maybe she approved of it.
We stayed that way. Too close. Breathing the other in.
Before I did something stupid, I cleared my throat and took a step back.
“You should probably grab the things you need.”
She stared at me for a beat longer before she gave a tight nod, and she began to load the cart with a bunch of girlie shit.
Scented soaps and lotions. Shampoo and conditioner. All of it coconut.
There was no stopping the amusement that tugged at my chest.
“Are you trying to smell like a tropical island?” My hands were fisted around the side of the cart as I stared over at her.
Black hair cascaded around her unforgettable face. Those striking eyes. My fingers tingled with the urge to reach out and trace over the scar by her chin when her smile tweaked at that side. Like the action had now become natural.
Her eyes swam, a toiling ocean of gray. “Don’t you ever want to run away, Pax? Run away and wake up in a different place?”
“Isn’t that what we’re doing?”
“But are we really going anywhere? I used to think when I was little that maybe if I went somewhere else, I wouldn’t end up in Tearsith.” Her attention dropped to her feet for a beat; then her voice filled with self-deprecation as she continued, “We went to Disney World once . . . when I was seven. I cried the whole way because I didn’t want to go. Because I was afraid that when I went to sleep, you might not be there.”
She chewed at her bottom lip and peeked at me when she said it.
Memories of that time slammed into me. When we were young. When we were innocent. When I couldn’t wait to meet with her because she was my safe place. The place I’d go to escape the brutality of my childhood.
When I hadn’t understood anything except for understanding her.
The horrors of fighting in Faydor had almost erased that.
The innocence.
But Aria had never lost hers.
The girl was so fucking good.
“I remember,” I said, the vague memory fluttering at the back of my mind. Close to forgotten, where that time had been stored away. “I remember how you’d run out to hug me the second you saw me and said you were worried you’d never see me again. Only you would think going to Disney World was a punishment.” My voice went soft with the ribbing. A gentle tease. The affection growing far thicker than I ever should let it.