KNOX’S POV

Nathaniel goes absolutely white.

For a second neither of us moves, and the corridor is dead silent. I watch the words hit him and open something that hasn’t finished healing and might not finish healing properly in either of our lifetimes.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Knox?” It comes out of him tight. So tight that he seems a breath away from breaking down “Seriously, why would you even say that—” He stops, and he just breathes. “The last twenty-four hours have been a lot. I was just asking if you’d eaten.”

I know I crossed the line. I know it instantly.

I stand there in...