Page 227 of Face Off

“That you’ll go up there carrying everything her father just did to you, she’ll start crying about being excluded, and somehow you’ll end the conversation apologizing for hurting her feelings.”

“That isn’t happening.”

“You have a history.”

“I said it isn’t happening.”

Cade steps closer but stops before touching me. “Don’t let her turn this into something you did to her.”

“I won’t.”

“She may not do it deliberately.”

“I know Charm.”

“So do I.” His voice softens without losing any of its certainty. “She loves you, but when she panics, she looks for whatever restores her sense of control. Tonight, that might be making you explain yourself while you’re still bleeding from her father’s fist.”

“I need to give her the chance not to do that.”

Cade nods after a moment. “Then give her the chance.”

We walk back toward the castle without speaking. Music still reaches the lawn, but the party sounds different after the distance we put between ourselves and the terrace. I can hear people laughing again. Bliss deserves that much. She deserves every person who remained after the police left pretending Lance did not drag his poison across the celebration she spent months creating.

Cade walks me inside through a side entrance so I do not have to cross the terrace again. We reach the staircase leading toward the guest rooms, and he catches my shoulder before I begin climbing.

“Call me if you need me.”

“I’m talking to Charm, not storming a fucking embassy.”

“With the two of you, the distinction is thin.”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you aren’t.”

I look at him.

Cade squeezes my shoulder once before releasing it. “You don’t need to be. Just don’t disappear on me.”

“I won’t.”

He accepts the promise because he knows I do not make them casually. Then he returns toward the party while I climb to Charm’s floor.

My adrenaline begins rising again before I reach her door. I stand outside it long enough to make certain I am here because I chose to speak to her and not because some part of me still believes I need to comfort her for what Lance did to me.

I knock.

The door opens quickly. Charm has been crying. Her makeup is smeared beneath her eyes, and the fitted yellow tank and black slacks she wore downstairs are wrinkled from Bliss and Rider holding her back. Her bare feet are visible beneath the long hems. She looks at the blood on my mouth before lifting her gaze to mine, but she does not ask whether I am all right.

“What do you want?”

The hostility in her voice nearly sends me back down the hallway.

“Come walk with me.”

Her eyebrows lift. She folds both arms across her chest and leans against the doorframe. “Are you sure I’m allowed?”

I stare at her.