ZANE
I took a step back.
It wasn’t a choice. My body moved before my pride could catch up. The air felt wrong around her now, as if it were contaminated and poisoned.
Her smile vanished, and with a sudden shove, she pushed me hard in the chest. I stumbled back, nearly losing my balance and tipping over air. She stood till she was towering over me, looking down at me like I was some pesky fly beneath her shoe.
“Don’t ever touch me again,” she said, her voice cold, final. “That was the first and last time.”
I didn’t reach for her.
I couldn’t.
The truth settled into my bones then, slow and crushing. Whatever I thought I was becoming, whatever power I believed I was entitled to, it was gone.
Worse than gone, in fact, because it looked like I had chained myself to someone far more dange
