​🔹THORNE
​She stared at me like I'd grown a second head. "You want me to fight you?"
​"I want you to stop dulling your edges for me." I caught her wrist, my thumb finding her pulse. It jumped under my touch. "Even when that terrifies me."
​Her breath hitched. The confusion in her eyes shifted into something more guarded, more wary. Like she was waiting for the trap to spring.
​"You don't mean that," she said quietly.
​"I do."
​"You'll change your mind." Her voice was flat, matter-of-fact. "When I do something reckless again. When I make a choice you don't agree with. You'll remember why you wanted me compliant in the first place."
​The words hit harder than her claws had. Because she believed them. She'd already written the script for how this would end.
​"Maybe," I admitted, and watched her eyes shutter. "I'll probably fuck this up a hundred more times. Say the wrong thing. Push when I should pull. Try to cage you when I'm scared."
