Page 475 of Coal Hearts

But now?

Fucking Christ, every inch of her wonderful body was a blazing reminder of what I’d done.

She hates me...

Swallowing hard, I did my best to shut down the slicing pain in my heart.

The abyss pounced all over again.

I sank into the black.

Chapter Eleven

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Ily

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AIRY, BUBBLY, FLOATY...

Uh-oh.

I blinked as my fingers dug into the exquisitely soft bed, clinging tightly as if gravity would let go of me at any moment, and I’d drift around the room like an untethered balloon.

The mental picture of me bouncing off the ceiling and rolling down the curtains made me giggle.

Oh God—

Slamming a hand over my mouth, I tried to stop the rapid rising of inappropriate humour. My arms throbbed where they bent at my elbows, a reminder that bruises covered most of me.

I hadn’t dared look in the foggy mirror to see how bad I looked. Then again, the soft spinning in my head didn’t really care.

The sharp savagery of agony had gone.

Buh-bye...won’t miss you...don’t come again.

Dropping my hand, I sighed into the sugary softness of peace.

I liked this room.

No painting of that demonic goblin murdering a unicorn. No four-poster where Henri almost bound me with his tie. No wall where he’d kissed me and punched me right in the stupid, traitorous heart.

I rubbed my chest, needing to delete that first and worse contusion.

The whole organ was black with pain. The arteries and veins blue from his kiss. Every pump was a reminder of the ache in my soul every time he looked at me.

He scolded me.

The way he yelled at me downstairs...the emptiness in his eyes...the nastiness in his voice.

God—

Okay, so the pain wasn’t completely gone.

The cluster of bullets Kyle had fired where my bullseye used to be, shared their pain directly with the very thing Henri had pulverised.

Even when he’d cut me and commanded me, he’d never spoken to me that way before.