Page 44 of Born for Lace

ChapterThirteen

Lagos

She is unconscious.

Blood covers her cream corset and stains the pale skin across her chest and arms. Her hair is a red matted mess. I can’t identify her injuries in the fucking dark, with all this blood.

I rip her corset down the middle to find her torso swelling on the left-hand side, around her defined ribs. With barely any fat or muscle on her, very little protects her lungs.

And her skin, thin and soft, barely keeps her together.

Fucking Common.

They are unbelievably fragile creatures.

I wrap my hands around her ribcage, encompassing it entirely, and trace the channels between each bone with my thumbs until I feel the breaks. One, at least.

My blood boils. That Shadow fucker kicked her, crushed her nose, split her lip, fuck knows what else. I scoop her into my arms, expecting her to be light, but… She is made of nothing.

Young. Weak. Fragile.

Fuck.

They can’t find her.

I stride through the puddles of blood caked across the dusty limestone. All that is left of the fucker who hurt her. Bones and flesh in the ocean. It won’t happen again. She stays with me now, until I deliver her and the Shadow baby to the Common Community.

She stays at my side.

Until she is safe.

The rocks crunch beneath my feet as I make my way through the dark rocky corridors and down to the subterranean stream.

In response to my presence, glowworms brighten, illuminating the walls and each lancing stalactite. I take the old cavern stairs with her flopped in my arms.

Check her quick.

Fully clothed, I stride straight into the underground lake, needing to clean her wounds so that I can see the damage I’m fucking dealing with.

A long whimper leaves her split lip; still, even in this battered condition, she is pretty. I noticed the moment I saw her, noticed and hated it. Hated her green eyes filled with fear and sorrow. She looked up at me, and—fuck me—her eyes perfectly reflected my soul. Large, glistening, olive-green orbs of fear and disgust.

Something inside me said,there she is.The thing you have been waiting for, the reason for it all. Something pure and gentle that sees you for what you are—inhuman.Someoneto remind you how real humanity glows and trembles.

Take her.

Fuck her.

She could be yours.

That was pathetic humanity clinging to me— And I felt like killing someone after that. Remind myself who I am and what I don’t deserve to touch—Her. Anyone pure and good like her.

Not again.

I followed her that first day because my blood could sense her lie. I watched her bathe and sensed she wasn’t Maple. Stalked her to the Hub, where she exchanged her body with that fucking Endigo. No way was I allowing that, even if he’d left her unharmed.

Which he probably would have.

But fuck, did the vision of him with his cock between her pale, flawless thighs fuel my veins for his death. I’ve never killed a townie before, but I didn’t even blink. Red was a mist over my eyes.

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