Page 154 of Bound By Fury

He shifts his weight, taking on a subtly defensive stance. His eyes are calculating, assessing. The first words out of his mouth take me by surprise. “What happened to your face?”

I touch the tender spot where a deep blue contusion has formed around the cut. I shrug.

“I thought I told you not to come back here.” His voice is gruff, but there’s confusion in it too.

Like he can’t figure out my angle, why I would risk myself like this.

“I just—” I don’t meet his eyes. “It doesn’t have to be like this,” I whisper, knowing he’ll have to strain to hear me. I stare at my hands.

“Like what?” he asks. His footsteps crunch against the dying earth as he ambles toward me. Slowly. Deliberately.

I look up as unshed emotion washes over his face, and he rakes his hands through his hair. “You never know when to give up. You think you’re invincible. Always have.”

Scanning the tree line, I choke down the pounding in my chest. What if there were a world where none of this had to happen? What if we could be better than the roles we’ve been given? What if we could be different?

“Odds you’ll leave with me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You heard me.”

He sighs. “I’m not playing these games, Harper.”

“You have to,” I say. “Those are the rules. Always have been.”

“Well, I’m changing them.”

“You can’t.” Heat floods my cheeks.

“Yes, I can.”

“You want to kill me that bad?” I throw up my hands. “It’s worth everything to you? Every memory, every dream?”

He looks like I’ve slapped him.

“It’s worth my life?”

“Stop being so dramatic,” he says, his eyes devouring me.

I turn away. Lead him farther into the forest.

I can feel the warmth radiating off him as he follows too closely.

“I told you to run.” His fingers trail down my arm, and I jerk from his grasp. “What?” he murmurs. “Isn’t this why you wanted one last goodbye?”

He pulls my hood down and sweeps my curls over my shoulder, his lips pressing against the side of my neck.

I gasp, my eyes fluttering closed as his voice slithers into my ear.

“You know, I’ve tried and tried to resist my urges. But every time you come back to me, my resolve lessens.”

In the distance a twig snaps.

Lucas, right on time.

Turning, I let my fingers idle on the drawstrings of his hoodie. “You lied to me,” I murmur, looking at him from beneath my lashes.

“I didn’t lie to you,” he whispers.