CHAPTER 230
KATYA POV
I stayed very still. Not because I was brave. Not because I trusted him completely. Because every instinct in me said that moving—suddenly, wrongly—would make this worse.
His fingers slid carefully through my hair, separating strands that had stuck together with blood.
The touch was firm but deliberate, like he was handling something fragile he didn't want to break.
I flinched anyway.
He didn't pull away. He didn't snap at me either. He just paused, hand hovering near my scalp, waiting.
"Sorry," I whispered before I could stop myself. The word slipped out automatically, reflexive and unwanted.
"You don't need to apologize," he said flat but not unkind. "Just tell me if it hurts."
It already did. Everything hurt. My head throbbed in deep, nauseating pulses, and my back felt like it had been split open and stitched back together wrong. But I nodded anyway.
