Page 96 of Crush
“What the—what the hell?” I garble out, my tailbone singing with pain. They can join my ankle, my limbs, my very essence, along with the vibrating exhaustion running through my veins. I stand but trip a few times as if drunk. Peeling my hood back, I right myself enough to say, “If you’re here to prevent me from lighting that torch, you’re out of your mind. I will win this challenge if it’s the last thing I do. I will fucking end your Briar line given the chance—”
I stop when I notice his bowed-over form and the fact he isn’t unleashing the biting retorts he normally does. “Thorne?”
“I—give me a sec,” he grunts out, bracing his hands on his thighs. “I need … I need a—hang on.”
He tilts sideways.
“Thorne!” Rushing over, I catch him before he falls. He flinches away from my grip as if I’m making it worse. “What’s happened to you?”
“My father. A lesson learned.” Thorne says it through stiff lips, holding out a hand to keep me at bay.
But watching him stumble, seeing him so weak … He’s mad if he thinks I’ll stay away from him.
On my knees, I shuffle closer to his side, laying a gentle hand on his hip and coaxing him to sit back on his haunches. “You’re okay now. You’re safe.”
He releases a scoff. If he weren’t so frail, I’d say there were mocking undertones in it.
“I’m stronger than you are, asshole, and I’ve just swum an entire length of an ocean that wanted to eat me, so I hope you choke on your laughter if you don’t mind.”
Through the pain, Thorne manages a smile. It’s that beautiful curvature of lips that breaks me.
“Tell me,” I say softly. “What did he do to you?”
I give him the once-over while I’m asking it, noticing the splotches of blood coming through his gray coat before he needs to answer.
“My God,” I breathe out, touching the stains so delicately, there’s no way he can feel them.
Yet he closes his eyes in bliss like he can.
“I’m not here to tell you about the whipping,” he says. My eyes pop at the word whipping.
“That kind of weapon will scar you.” I’ve seen Thorne’s body a few times now, muscled, gorgeous, flexed, and flawless. “Your father’s never permanently inflicted damage … has he?”
“Depends on your definition of permanent damage.” Thorne opens his eyes long enough to search mine before closing them again. “No. Physically, he hasn’t.”
I try to imagine how furious Thorne must’ve made his father in order to willingly leave lasting disfigurement on his only son.
“Why did he do this to you?”
Thorne parts his lips as if to answer before his chin juts out and his eyes fly open. “None of your goddamn business. As I said, that’s not why I’m here.”
We stare each other down, suddenly in a war, him refusing to submit, and me demanding he does.
Shouldn’t I know by now what a futile battle I’ve started? Why would he side with me now? Or ever?
“Fine.” I can’t trust myself not to shove him onto his ass like he did me, so I stand, brushing my hands against my wetsuit like that’ll stop the urge. “I’ll light this cursed torch, then be on my way so you can brood in peace.”
“Ember. Wait a minute.”
Thorne never asks anything of me. His pleading tone is the only thing that makes me hesitate. Thorne’s hand comes down on my arm, his grip hard and unyielding as he uses me to stand, then spins me to face him.
When our eyes meet, I lose my breath.
Thorne gazes down at me with the type of firelight I’ve only read about in fairy tales.
“You can’t keep me here.” I speak more from fear than anger. The devotion in his stare… it scares me. “I’m not about to let you sabotage this win. You and your father—you’re both dark in your own ways, and you’ve wrapped me in your twisted lives like wild vines. I have to choose, now, between saving you and destroying you, and I choose to bring you down.” I hope the determination in my stare is as bright as his. “Stop making me question it.”
His hold slides from my shoulders to my neck. Not to clasp it and show dominance, but to stroke the sensitive skin before one hand holds me at the nape, tangling against the hair at the back of my head. Thorne tilts my chin up, stroking the line of my jaw with the other hand, staring at that spot as if in awe.