Page 87 of Bloom in Darkness

Astra finally seems to notice the scrape on his knee and the red palm he caught on the concrete. “I’m fine.”

“You’re getting checked anyway,” I tell him.

His attention drops to the blood covering my hands. “Then so are you.”

Caelan wipes his split lip with the back of his hand. “All three of us are getting checked. Nobody wins this argument.”

Astra lets out a brief laugh that disappears the second Rourke moves on the floor. I tense, but Astra tightens his grip around my wrist until I force myself to look at him instead.

“No,” he says quietly.

By the time the police come downstairs, the gun is bagged where Forrest had it secured, the camera footage is already being copied, and half the people still in the Forge are waiting to tell somebody what they saw. Silas tries to say they came to talk, but Astra cuts him off before he gets through the sentence.

“I told you no.”

The officer turns toward him, and Astra points toward Rourke without letting go of my hand. “He charged me with a gun in his waistband. It fell out. I picked it up. Bryn took it away from me. Then he came at me again.”

Silas starts, “We were trying to get him away from—”

Astra doesn’t let him finish. “I said no at my house, in messages, and tonight. I said no.” After that, even Silas shuts up, leaving the officers to finish taking statements without another interruption from him.

We’re there another hour before Forrest finally tells us to go. Caelan has copies of the incident number, the names of everyone who gave statements, and the camera files backed up in two places because of course he does. I don’t care about any of it until we’re in the car with Astra in the back seat between us.

At home, Astra goes straight to the kitchen and sits on the counter while Caelan gets the first-aid kit. I stand at the sink washing Rourke’s blood off my hands, watching the water turn pink before it runs clear even though my knuckles are still bleeding.

Astra watches me for a minute. “You’re doing the thing.”

I glance over at him, and he slides one hand along the edge of the counter. “The thing where you decide you’re secretly a monster and stop talking.”

I turn back to my hands. “I almost killed him.”

“Yeah.” Astra slides off the counter instead of pretending otherwise. “You almost did.”

He crosses the kitchen until his bare feet are between mine, forcing me to look at him when both hands come up to my face. “He brought a gun into the Forge to take me. I stomped him in the fucking face. I’m not going to act horrified because you hit him.”

“I should’ve stopped sooner.”

“You stopped when I asked.” His thumbs move once over my cheeks. “That’s what I care about.”

I look past him toward the sink. “It took too long.”

Astra turns my face back toward him. “But you still heard me.”

I don’t have anything useful to say to that, so I bend until my forehead rests against his and let him keep holding my face. “I didn’t stop you because I give a shit what happens to Rourke,” he says quietly. “I stopped you because I wanted you here with me more than I wanted him dead.”

Astra stays there for another few seconds before rubbing his thumb over my cheek. “Also, I won my part of that fight.”

I pull back. “He was already on the floor.”

“He reached for me.”

Caelan snorts from the table, ending the argument before I can start one.

I wrap both arms around Astra and lift him. He swears, hooks his legs around my waist anyway, and points over my shoulder toward Caelan.

I look back. “Upstairs.”

Caelan grabs the first-aid kit on his way after us. “I’m still cleaning your hands.”