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“What else?” she asked again.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then you won’t. Look.”
She’d been watching the green of his flames travel slowly up his shins. It had reached the knees of his sweatpants now. Healing green, warring with the angry red and orange.
His eyes went wide, and he muttered a curse and flinched away from her. “Don’t get too close,” he gritted out, pressing back against the porch railing.
“What else is so awful about you?” she whispered.
“I will be the end of everything I care about. Just like my father.”
“Is that all?”
“Is that all?” he asked, the green flames on his legs blazing red. He stood. “That’s not enough? Look around you, Timber. Look at these people’s faces.”
But when Timber stood too, she looked around, and there was a softness to his people. Tens of people stood around, watching, waiting. Their eyes were full of understanding, not hate. Hallie had tears in her eyes, and her lip was trembling.
He was looking around now, confusion warring with anger on his face.
“What else is so bad?” she whispered.
“None of that is okay,” he uttered.
Timber took a step toward him.
“Stop!” he growled.
Pursing her lips, she took another step closer. Oh, he could escape. He could jump the railing, or hell, he could just fly away.
He angled his face away from her as she took another step closer. The flames on his body were cooling. They were growing smaller, and the ones closest to her had green edges.
She had to have faith in him, and in his animal, that he would keep her safe from himself.
“It’s okay.”
“Stop,” he whispered.
“It’s okay,” she uttered softly.
“Please,” he said thickly.
Timber huffed a tension-filled breath and reached for him, half expecting the burn.
She wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek on his chest, face toward his destroyed home.
He was warm, but not uncomfortably so. She stood as still as she could, hugging him as tightly as was possible for a fragile human like her. Wreck stood still, full of tension, arms pinned to his sides. His chest rose and fell quickly with his short breaths.
“Go away,” he whispered half-heartedly one more time.
“No.”
And she felt it. His tension faded like morning fog meeting sunshine. He exhaled a steadying breath, and she opened her eyes to see their reflection in the window by the front door. He was edged in soot, but in the reflection, they were both glowing a bright green. As he eased his arms out of her embrace, the green brightened even more.
He slowly slid his arms around her, and the pressure of his hands on her back drew a sigh from her.
Squeezing her eyes closed, two tears raced down her cheeks. She knew he’d lowered a wall for her tonight. A big one. One he’d kept carefully built and guarded for years.
