Page 116 of Tempest’s Torment

The first knot gives, and I carefully pull the rope away from her wrist. Jesus Christ. The skin underneath is fucking torn.

I close my eyes for half a second, because if I keep looking at what he did to her, I'm going to turn around and finish him myself.

Her fingers touch my cheek. I open my eyes. "Don't," she whispers.

"Don't what?"

"Go somewhere else."

Fuck.

I turn my face into her palm and kiss it. "I'm right here." Her fingers shake against my skin, and I move to the other wrist. "Tell me where you're hurt."

"My face."

"I can see that."

"My shoulder and my ribs hurt a little."

"A little?"

She gives me the smallest smile. "Maybe more than a little."

"What else?"

"Everything aches."

My jaw clenches, but I keep working at the rope.

Behind me, I can hear Ghost shouting at someone, boots moving across the floor, and Savage telling somebody to get the fuck down. I don't turn around because whatever happens to Evan Calloway now has nothing to do with me.

Lilah does.

The second rope comes free, and I move down to her ankles, getting those restraints off her as quickly as I can without hurting her.

"There." I sit back and look at her. She's free, finally fucking free. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah."

She puts her hands on the arms of the chair and pushes herself up.

Her knees buckle before she's even properly upright, but I catch her, one arm going around her waist and the other behind her back.

"I've got you."

Her hands grab the front of my cut, and then she breaks. The first sob tears out of her so hard her whole body folds into mine, and I pull her against my chest, careful of her shoulder even though every part of me wants to hold her so fucking tight nothing will ever get near her again.

"I've got you, baby."

She buries her face against me and cries. She fucking sobs. Her hands twist into my cut, and her entire body shakes against mine, and I feel my own eyes burn as I press my face into her hair.

"It's okay," I murmur. "You don't have to hold it together anymore."

"I knew you'd come."

I swallow past the lump in my throat. "I was always coming."

"I knew you'd find me."