"You gave it to me," Cixi replied, her eyes still fixed on the blade.
She did not want it. She did not want it anywhere near her skin. She hurled the knife across the room. It spun through the air, struck the wall with a sharp metallic crack, and clattered to the floor.
When Cassian moved toward her, Cixi threw her hand up.
"Do not come near me!" She almost screamed it. Her voice shook. Her chest heaved. Her body pressed deeper into the sofa as though the cushions could swallow her whole.
Cassian stopped at once. His eyes sharpened, scanning her face the way a surgeon scans an open wound, clinical and urgent.
He took in her disoriented expression, the disbelief etched into her features, the way she looked at him as though she could not decide whether he was real or a continuation of the thing she had just escaped.
"Did you have a nightmare?" he asked quietly.
