Tabitha purred, smug and delighted. “He’s ours.”
But all I could think was: what if he finds out? What if he sees how weak I am, how pathetic, how tainted? What if he notices the way I flinch, the way I struggle to breathe when someone gets too close, the way my mind flashes back to hands I didn’t want? What if he realizes I’m damaged gods and decides he doesn’t want me after all? that I'm too much to sign for.
Wouldn’t that be easier?
If he rejected me now, before I could hope, before I could want, before I could believe.
I wanted to run. To shove his hand away and lock myself in a room until the shaking stopped. To hide behind my smile until the world made sense again. But I couldn’t move. Not when he was staring at me like that. Not when Tabitha was howling in triumph, urging me to
