Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Jesus.
Why did that make my stomach flutter?
“Even if I aim correctly and make the hit, it’s just one knife,” I say.
“Just that one knife could make the difference …” he murmurs, standing so closely to my side I can barely even breathe. He pushes my hand up to exactly where he wants it to be, as his other hand slowly snakes up my body, pulling me closer to him until I’m turned sideways.
“Between life …”
I throw.
“And death.”
And hit.
My God.
Is it the room that’s hot, or is it me?
“Knew you could do it,” he murmurs, grinning against my skin. “Well done, thief.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat as his hand slowly lowers from my waist, and he steps away to pull the knife out of the board.
“Why are you doing this?”
The words roll off my tongue before I realize it.
His brows draw together. “What? Teaching you how to throw a knife?” He casually tosses it in the air like it’s a plaything to him. “Because I can teach you a whole lot more if you’re into it.”
I don’t doubt he could, but that’s not what I want to know. “Why are you trying to help me?”
He pauses, his green eyes flickering with interest as if he hadn’t considered my question's answer before I said it out loud.
Slowly, he walks toward me, and with each step, I take one back, afraid of what might happen if I let a guy like him get close.
Because he’s no longer just that unhinged bully, that crazed killer.
Not since he saved me.
But the wall and I meet at an untimely moment, and I hold my breath as he plants a hand beside my head.
“Am I not allowed to help the girl who gave her body to me?”
He leans in, hovering dangerously close to my face.
“Am I not allowed to protect what’s mine?”
A shiver runs up and down my spine from the way he breathes close to my skin.
“You call me a monster, but far worse monsters are beyond those walls, and I think you know that.”
My teeth begin to clatter as he reaches for my arm and tucks the knife into the palm of my hand, curling my fingers around it.
“Take the knife. Wield it. Own it. So that when I’m not around …” He breathes out a sigh. “This body will still be safe.” He taps my chest, then turns around and nonchalantly walks to the middle of the room … right in front of the board.
“Now show me what you can do, twig.”
I grind my teeth. “Stop calling me that.”
“Or what?” He tilts his head, a mischievous smile forming on his face. “You gonna hit me, twig?”
My nostrils flare as I tighten my grip around the knife.
“Stop,” I grit.
“Just like you stopped depriving yourself of food when I told you to eat, twig?”
He doesn’t even have the slightest clue why, and it pisses me off.
“Go on, then. Throw it. Hit me. I know you want to.”
He’s just taunting me. The annoying part is that it’s seriously working.
“Aim here.” He points at his own heart. “If you can actually find it, you can keep it.”
I raise the knife and chuck it right at him. No hesitation. But the moment it leaves my fingertips, a pang of regret instantly hits me sharper than the tip of that knife as it flies toward him.
He catches the knife midair, inches away from his chest, not by the handle, but by the blade.
Droplets of blood slowly roll down the palm of his hand.
“A twig that breaks easily under pressure …” The deadly smirk on his face could make any girl’s heart stop. “Turns into the sharpest weapon.”
Including mine.
“Beginner’s luck,” I retort.
“No. That’s what determination looks like,” he says, squashing the knife even farther in his hand, speeding the bleeding. “You actually thought for a moment you could kill me.” The killer smile on his face only widens. “You wanted to kill me.”
After everything he’s done … maybe I did.
For a moment.
But that moment passed as quickly as the knife flew through the air.
“I’m not a murderer any more than you’re a savior,” I murmur.
We are who we were born to be.
And he … he’s just what he said, a monster.
He deserves it.
But then why didn’t I actually want him dead?
Is it pity?
“I thought the same thing, twig …” He brings his hand up to his mouth and actually licks the blood off his skin. “So then tell me why I need to kill everyone who even thinks of putting their hands on you?”
I can’t stop staring at those lips caked with blood as he steps closer and closer while my heart beats faster and faster.
“Why I want to give you the skills to defend yourself, even against someone like me?” He points the knife at my belly, right where he created the scar.