Lord of Silver Ashes (Rowan Blood, #2)

by Kellen Graves

Those letters he would carry forever—IMPERTINENCE, SELFISHNESS, AR...—were gnarled like tree bark. Visible from a distance. Discolored and unsightly. He’d been able to ignore them through strategic avoidance until that point, never looking in the mirror, always using a brush to scrub his back in the bath, even wearing one of Cylvan’s shirts when they had sex the first time— But there, in the dark bathroom, they were more visible than ever. He just heard the chanting mockery of the party guests once he was drenched in wine, fabric clinging to every carved mark, read aloud for everyone to hear. His hands shook. He grabbed the blouse back off the floor, quickly pushing his arms back through the sleeves and fastening enough of the buttons that it wouldn’t fall away. He left the pants on, too, realizing he didn’t want to see the bandages around his broken leg, either. Would there be ugly scars there, too? Scars, marks, imperfections he never before ever thought twice about—until mocked by an entire room of perfect people who had never known what it was like to have calloused hands? Saffron sat in the bath, fully clothed, until the hot water turned to ice. He emotionally prepared for the moment he returned to the main part of the room and, after seeing and touching Saffron’s unsettling scars up close, Cylvan would be long gone.