Page 180 of Star Claimed Omega
He jerked open his eyes finally, shaking his head. ‘How are you alive?’
She tilted her head, as if weighing whether he was worthy of the intel.
Finally, she shared in a flat, monotone voice. ‘I escaped in a racing skimmer, riding the wave of the blast.’
‘Fokkin’ badass.’
‘You’d better believe it.
‘Can we talk?’ He ventured, his utterance hoarse with desperation.
She gave him another cold one over. ‘I’d rather not, you said what you meant when we last spoke.’
‘Soleil, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean the shit I uttered then.’
She jolted, her eyes clouding over, and she blinked. ‘What you said might be unforgivable.’
‘Nada, mi sol-.’
‘I don’t have time for this. My boss is going to dock my pay for taking an unexpected break, and I’m not in the mood. I need my space. You have to leave.’
She turned her back on him and moved to a sideboard, busying herself with tidying it up.
He should’ve walked away.
However, a stern resolve inside him, his soul stubborn and gutted, wouldn’t let him.
Unable to believe she was shutting him out, Santi followed.
He reached for her, wanting to cradle her head like he used to, to trail his mouth over her temple all the way to her earlobe.
To love her like he once did, like she deserved.
His fingers almost touched heaven when she twisted to face him, pulling back.
Eyes guarded, brimming with sad resignation.
‘Don’t,’ she said quietly. ‘I beg you.’
His hand fell, twitching at his side.
‘I’ll leave in a minute,’ he murmured. ‘Please let me say this.’
Soleil’s lips pressed together. She didn’t nod, but neither did she walk away.
It was the smallest mercy he’d ever hoped for, and he clung to it like oxygen.
‘I was freakin wrong,’ he started, voice rough. ‘Not just a little mistaken. Not the kind of wrong you say sorry for in a breath and get over. I was cruel because I made it about me.’
His throat burned.
‘I didn’t stop to think what it meant for you to have lived through that; what it cost you to be her,The Red Queen.I understand now it was not by choice or desire but because monsters forced your hand. And -.’
He swallowed hard.
‘I reacted to the chaos,mi sol, and refused to acknowledge the chains.’
Her lashes lowered, but she still didn’t speak.
