Free Darkness, Kindled by Samantha Young

couldn’t even protect you from my own brother.”
    “I protected myself.”
    “And then didn’t tell me!”
    “Stop yelling at me!”
    “How far did it get? What did he  do?”
    Ari sighed, her cheeks burning with
    the memory. “It didn’t get far. He touched me, kissed me …”
    “Touched you where?”
    “Does it matter?”
    “Yes, it fucking matters.”
    Ari blanched and stepped back.
    “You’re scaring me.”
    “Yeah, well, I’m scaring myself.”
    He turned on his heel and marched out of the room, his hand gripping the back of his neck.
    Taking a moment to control her  nerves, Ari waited before following him into the sitting room. She found him standing at the fireplace, his hands braced on the mantel, head bowed. Crossing the room to him, she felt him tense as she placed a soothing hand on his shoulder. Slowly, he relaxed under her touch. “My hip, my thigh, and my neck.”
    Jai stiffened when he realized she  meant those were the places David had touched her. “I should have killed him.”
    “No,” she whispered. “No. Not over  me. For what he did to you in the past, maybe, but never over me, Jai.”
    “Ari,” he turned his head and she  saw his lip had already healed. Pain still seared in his eyes, though. “What he did to you, he did to me. Whatever happens to you happens to me. Don’t you get that?”
    She nodded, feeling the tears prick  her eyes. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you.”
    Jai stood straight and pulled her  roughly into his arms, his head bowed against her shoulder. “Promise you’ll never keep anything from me, no matter how much you think I won’t want to hear it.”
    “I promise.” Ari gripped him tight.
    “But I swear I’m okay. A little shaken up when it happened, but it hasn’t kept me up at night. I swear.”
    “Good,” he murmured, his hot lips  pressing soft kisses up her neck to her ear. “Did it frighten you? What I did to him?”
    “A little,” she answered honestly.
    “It frightened me too.” He held her  even tighter.
    When Ari felt him tremble, a tear  spilled over her lashes. She didn’t want him to think badly of himself. She wanted him to know she understood. “Jai,” she whispered and pulled back so she could look him in the eye and he’d know she was telling the truth. “I would hunt down anyone who hurt you. I would. I don’t know what kind of person that makes me, but it’s the truth. So even if it frightened me … what you did … I get it.”
    With a groan of gratitude, Jai  crushed her lips beneath his.
    The kiss grew quickly out of  control and they stumbled together to the couch. Jai braced his body above hers, his chest heaving with emotion. “We don’t have to …”
    With a soft smile, Ari sent her  magic out into the room and it darkened suddenly as she closed the curtains.
    “Yes, we do.” She reached for the hem of his T-shirt and helped him pull it up over his head. Quickly they undressed one another, frantic to be close, and to wipe out the violence of their morning.

6
    There’s Dry Rot in This  Wooden Bridge of Promises

    The house seemed to ring with silence. Was that possible? Ari frowned, trying to relax in the chair in her room. Her muscles, however, refused to do her bidding, her spine ramrod straight as her whole body perched, ready to jump into action at a moment’s notice.
    Yesterday, Jai had stayed by her side the whole day. He needed the reassurance of having her close, and not just because of the revelation about David’s attack. No, he needed her close because he knew that the next morning, he was going to have to leave her all alone to start this thing with Charlie. Ari appreciated him believing in her, believing that she could take care of this. She was proud of him for being able to put his differences aside with Charlie to help her try to save her friend.
    Especially when Ari wasn’t sure if there was anything left to save.
    She was pretty sure he was no longer the boy she’d