Into the Fading Twilight (Starlight Grove, #2) (87)

We’d made it clear to Orion that just because he’d cut Ever out of his life, that didn’t mean we would. She’d grown up with us. Her family had worked and lived on the property we’d grown up on … until it all fell apart.

But for the first time in a long time, I didn’t give a damn if Ever being here tripped his triggers. Nova needed a doctor, and Ever was one of the few I trusted.

Nova held tightly to me as I climbed the stairs. Her strength was a reassurance, but the fact that she was clinging so hard worried the hell out of me.

Navigating the doorway, I crossed to my bed and lowered her to the mattress. She stayed sitting, but her eyes were too unfocused. She’d lost my flannel I’d seen her leave in somewhere along the way and wore only the soft purple workout gear from earlier. Angry scratches dotted her arms and chest, and her knees and one shin were bloody.

Just the sight of it had anger rushing to the surface. Anger at Mav, at everything Nova had been through, at myself.

Footsteps sounded. “Here’s the kit,” Maverick said softly, lowering it to the floor next to me. “I’m sorry—”

“Not now,” I gritted out. “I know you are. Just … not now.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

He slid from the room as new footsteps sounded.

“I got some loose sweats and a T-shirt,” Brae began, stepping inside. “Why don’t you let me help her get changed and—?”

“I’ve got it.”

I could practically feel Brae bristle, but she battled it back. “Supernova, you okay with Kol? You need me to stay?”

“Good—with—Kol.” Nova’s voice sounded rusty, raw, but it still cut through the room like a blade.

“Okay, babycakes. But I’m here if you need me. I’ll just be downstairs.”

When the door shut behind Brae, I breathed a little deeper. I gently brushed my knuckles over Nova’s cheekbone, and she leaned into the touch. “Okay, Phoenix. We’re going to do this together. You want anything to stop, you just say the word, all right?”

She nodded, her eyes focusing on me a little more.

“I think we need these leggings off, but I’m gonna get you a pair of shorts to wear while I clean you up. Okay?”

Another nod.

I pushed to my feet, grateful she didn’t panic about me leaving her again. I moved to my dresser and pulled out the oldest pair of shorts with a drawstring I had, hoping they’d be slightly smaller.

I knew she’d still swim in them—as I crossed back to her, she looked so damn tiny sitting on the edge of my bed. So vulnerable.

And I had the sudden, visceral urge to kill every person who’d ever hurt her.

It took everything in me to relax my grip on the shorts and ease my expression. I dropped to my knees on the floor in front of Nova, carefully unlacing one shoe and slipping it off. Then the other.

I looked up at her and found her watching me. “Do you think you can stand?”

Her hands found my shoulders, using them for balance and leverage. Then, she stood.

My fingers hooked in the band of her leggings, careful not to get her underwear, too. “Okay?”

“Okay,” she rasped.

I pulled the leggings down as gently as possible, but Nova still winced when I got to her scraped knees. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“It’s all right.”

“It’s not,” I ground out, pulling one foot out and then the other.

“I’ve been through worse. I’ll make it through this, too.”

That didn’t make me feel any better. But there was nothing I could do but take care of her right now. I helped her into the shorts, having to double knot the drawstring to get them to stay in place. Nova’s hands gripped my shoulders as she sat back down on the bed.

“I just need to wash my hands.” I bolted for the bathroom. The second I caught my reflection in the mirror, I cursed. Wild-eyed and pale, I looked like some sort of cornered animal.

Turning the water as cold as it would go, I splashed some onto my face, as if that would miraculously bring me back from the edge. It didn’t.

Instead, I focused on meticulously washing my hands. Drying them. Pulling on that familiar mask that disguised anything I might be feeling.

I went back into the bedroom and knelt in front of Nova again. I felt her eyes on me, watching, but I couldn’t make eye contact. I couldn’t handle seeing the pain there.

Swallowing hard, I donned gloves and poured some hydrogen peroxide onto a cotton ball. “This might sting a little.”

“That’s okay.”

No, it fucking wasn’t. But I did it anyway because I had to.

Nova jumped just a little as I cleaned one knee. I bit the inside of my lip so hard I tasted blood, then moved to her other knee and down to her shin.

Afterward, I cleaned the scratches on her arms and then her chest. I was obsessive, searching for anywhere that might’ve been affected. Then I forced myself to look at her face.

“Does it hurt anywhere else?”

Nova stared at me, searching. “I’m sorry.”

I recoiled as if she’d struck me. “What do you have to be sorry about?”

“I shouldn’t have bitten your head off this morning. I shouldn’t have taken off without talking things out.”