He surrounded me. Overwhelming me with his presence as if he should be a comfort.
But he couldn't protect me, not when he was the one who would hurt me.
"You can't," I repeated, the words coming on a whisper.
He held me still, wrapping my hair around his fist and tilting my face up to meet his intense eyes. He searched my gaze, sighing into the void between us. "There are pains worse than the physical. Give me a different scar. Show me the ones on your soul," he murmured.
"What are you talking about?" I sputtered, reaching up to wipe away one of the tears that stained my cheeks.
He raised his hand to the space over my heart, the beating of it muffled against his palm. "Why does Odina hate you so much,Princesa?" he asked, watching as I drew in a ragged breath. Disbelief consumed me that he would ask such a thing of me in that moment.
I sniffled back my fear, pressing my lips together as I glared up at him. To use my terror against me, to pry to get inside my head in such a way was diabolical.
Given everything Hugo knew about my life, there wasn't much I had left that was safe from Rafael's invasion of my life. There was nothing left that was just mine.
But this one thing, the shame I felt for my actions as a child?
That was mine.
And I'd be fucking damned if I gave that up for anything. Even if I should have told him, because he'd never want to be with someone so fuckingstupid.
I glared up at his hopeful face, at the confidence he felt that I would do what it took to avoid the branding, and I took joy in denying him something that he wanted. Something he couldn’t know without me giving it to him. He might be able to take everything else.
I’d be damned if I gave him the last piece of me.
"No."