Page 30 of Pray for Scars
Who hurt you?he asked me.
Not as many people as I hurt back.
I see the gate as I sprint onto the damp grass, the morning sun just filling the sky. I’m shivering, my breath coming out in clouds in front of my face, my breathing ragged to my own ears. But I don’t stop sprinting.
Beyond the tall, iron gate, there’s a forest. Nicolas will meet me there.
Nicolas might drag me back to my brother. But I can think around my brother. I can manipulate him as well as he manipulates me. With Lucifer, I can’tthink.And he wants me dead. My brother might sometimes, too, but he won’t kill me.
I don’t think.
I reach the gate, hear the alarms still blaring at the church, a shrill siren call that stretches for miles.
My hands close around the cool iron bars. I’ll have to climb it. The front was locked when we came through, and besides that, it’s facing the wrong direction, away from the forest.
I glance over my shoulder and see nothing.
Don’t run.
But he knew. He had to know.
I haul myself up, my muscles shaking as I do. I think I’m still tripping, the way the metal seems to light up like ice against my skin. The way the trees of the forest beyond the gate seem to swirl together, coming alive.
I blink, my feet grasping at sleek metal. I slip, the metal burning my hands, but I try again, muscles straining.
When I get out of this, I’m doing more pull ups.
If I get out of this.
I climb higher, toes gripped around the slick iron.
The alarm stops.
I glance down at the ground, several feet below me now. I turn back, pull a little higher. I’m almost at the top. One hand over the other, my feet pressed against the metal to alleviate some of the ache in my arms.
My hand is almost at the top point of the fence.
I grip the ledge, groaning as I pull my body up higher, ready to swing my leg over and brace for the jump down to the other side.
But then a hand clamps around my ankle.
My body freezes.
Shit.
Lucifer’s fingers dig in deeper, and he grabs my other leg, too.
“Let go.”
I don’t.
He doesn’t ask again. Instead, he yanks me down and we both fall backward into the damp grass, his arms around me, breaking my fall.
He rolls us over, so he’s on top of me, his hands planted in the grass on either side of my head. He doesn’t even look angry.
He’s smirking, those cold, cruel eyes trailing from my mouth up to my eyes. He sighs.
“I like it when you run.” He leans down close, runs his mouth over my jaw. “Just so I can show you that every time,” his teeth scrape against my collarbone, “every fucking time, Lilith,” he picks his head up, eyes inches from mine, “I’m going to catch you.”
