Chapter 24
He shoved her back against the stairwell wall, hard enough to knock the breath from her, his fingers digging bruises into both her arms before he finally stepped back, breathing hard, straightening his jacket like nothing had happened at all.
"Fine," he said coldly. "Suffer, then. See if I offer again."
He left her there, and Callie slid down slowly until she was sitting on the bottom step, pressing a hand against her aching ribs, fresh bruises blooming dark beneath both sleeves.
She thought, briefly, about healing them. It would take so little effort now, barely a fraction of what she had spent on the matriarch weeks earlier. But she stopped herself before her hand ever reached the injury.
If the bruises vanished too quickly, someone would notice. The maids who changed her
