SEVENTY-SEVEN | REUNITED

Lily

The bark was rough against Lily’s back. She drew comfort from it, from that subtle brush of pain. It reminded her that she was alive, that she had survived. She had made it out of the cell in Red Ripper.

Dropping her head into her hands, she let out a ragged sigh. Writing a letter for Elijah had filled her with nerves, the kind that felt more like snakes writhing in a dark pit than friendly butterflies flapping their wings in her stomach. He’d seen Atticus take her, but… She was more worried about him that what he thought of her.

There was something else, though – something Lily didn’t want to admit, even to herself. Writing to Elijah had suffocated her with guilt. Last night, she’d felt something for Atticus. Not in the same way that she did Elijah, nowhere near, but when he’d called her beautiful… She’d felt it. It was the way his eyes, limned from within like sunlight streaming through summer leaves, had burned into her.

Then she’d broken her own rule, and she’d shuffled furt