Chapter Thirteen
Nikolai’s POV
I couldn’t sleep worth a damn.
The bed was too empty, the room too quiet, and my mind kept circling back to the little spitfire down the hall. Nina. The girl who’d nearly drowned herself trying to escape. The girl who looked at us like we were monsters but couldn’t hide the way her body responded when we got close.
I’d been the one to pull her from the ocean. Felt her go limp in my arms, dead weight dragging us both down. Breathed air back into her lungs while my heart tried to claw its way out of my chest.
She had no idea how close she’d come. How I’d torn through that water like it was trying to steal something that belonged to me.
Thirty seconds later and she would’ve been gone.
The thought made my jaw clench hard enough to ache.
I threw off the co
