Page 108 of Blood and Thorns

There was silence, stretching for so long I didn’t expect him to answer.

“Tip your head back,” he said quietly, the tension there beneath the huskiness of his tone. I hesitantly followed the command, and water poured carefully over my hair. “They were killed. Murdered when I was fourteen.”

My heart ached for him. “Sebastian…”

“They were just six and nine.”

I swallowed, my tears renewing, but this time they were for him. “Just babies.”

“Hmm.” He took his time with the shampoo and then the conditioner despite the angle being awkward. He didn’t ask me to move forward to make this easier, seemingly content to hold me against him. “I couldn’t save them.”

“Is that how you were hurt?”

He didn’t answer, instead gently washing my hair. I wanted to push, to understand one of the most dangerous men I hadn’t even known existed. He rarely offered anything personal, but when he did, I longed to know more.

“What about your parents?” I asked softly, his fingers weaving slowly through my damp hair.

I couldn’t see him, but I felt Sebastian smile. “My mother was like sunshine,” he said. “Petite and delicate. She left everything for him, giving up her inheritance and family to move to Paris when she fell pregnant with me.”

“And your father?”

He exhaled, a breath laced with old weight. “It was a whirlwind romance. He promised her the world, and for a while, I think he meant it.” A pause. “But he was already tangled in the Le Milieu, quickly rising in ranks until he held a prominent position within the heroin trade over on the continent. With that came money, status, and power.”

I listened, Sebastian’s voice hollow, as if recalling everything without emotion.

“He trusted the wrong people, invited a viper into our home, and because of him I lost everything.” Sebastian’s fingers brushed through my hair, cautious of the cut on my forehead. “I despise him for it.”

“Would he have invited her if he’d have known?” I asked.

“Does it matter?”

I didn’t respond, just leaned into the quiet, Sebastian’s heartbeat a steady rhythm against my back as he finished washing my hair.

“Why did you leave the arena?” he asked after a moment, his voice softer than before.

My cheeks burned from where my tears had dried, my eyes heavy with exhaustion. “I didn’t like seeing Langdon fight, so I was going to wait in the bathroom until you came back.”

“So why didn’t you use the bathroom in the arena?”

“Because Miles said it was out of order.”

Sebastian stiffened, his body rigid beneath me. I could almost feel the anger spiking from him in waves, and I waited for him to explode. To jump from the bath so he could break something and release this violent energy he always seemed to harbour, but never quite expel.

“What’s going to happen to that man?” I asked, stroking down his arms to help calm his storm. I expected him to push me away, but he didn’t.

“I’m going to kill him for daring to touch what’s mine.”

Chapter 48

Sebastian

Arabella stiffened at my words, turning in the water until she faced me with those eyes that seemed empty. Numb. I didn’t fucking want her eyes to show nothing; I wanted that spirit that had burned me the first time we’d met.

I’ve never quite felt such rage at seeing Arabella on that bathroom floor, her blood smeared with her dress torn. It was as if something had possessed me, and at first I’d stepped closer to the man that had hurt her, but then decided she was more important. That my vengeance could wait until I could reassure myself that she was okay.

She made no sound as I lifted her from the water, carefully wrapping her in a towel despite me leaving a trail behind. The fire in my bedroom was already alight, and settling her on the edge of the bed I got rid of my soaking trousers before placing her back on my lap facing the hearth. The armchair squeaked beneath me, the towel separating our bodies.

At first, she was tense, her eyes fixed to the dancing flames.