Katherine fell to her knees in the middle of the empty room, her chest tightened and her heart rate spiked. She was in this situation for her own mistakes, had she just called her sister, maybe she wouldn't be on trial for murder and tethered to a werewolf. How could she have know that her father went all the way to Seabright to help her? And why hadn't he come to see her if he was so close?
Questions swirled in Katherine's mind giving her an ache on her forehead. She forced herself to her feet, that ached from wearing her healed boots. She half hobbled her way up the stairs and out of the room into the empty windowed corridor.
"That damn man," muttered Katherine, she had told Max to wait for her but he had wandered off somewhere. Katherine lazily searched, aimlessly roaming the halls of the Council building. She didn't mind spending a bit of time to herself after the long day she had.
Katherine finally passed a sign for a restroom, wanting to splash her face with some water to soothe her head ache while she waited for Max to show up. She shoved the bathroom door hard enough to make it slam against the wall. She was mentally drained after being in front of accusing eyes and her fight with Marianne.
Katherine shuffled awkwardly over to the row of sinks, turning the faucet to splash her face with warm water. Katherine leaned over the sink with her eyes shut tight, letting the small droplets of waters roll down her face. This was going to be the longest two weeks of her life.
She reached her hand out taking a paper towel from the dispenser and proceeded to gently pat her face dry when she heard the sound of a zipper. Katherine stopped patting her face and peered into the mirror behind her. It was then she realized that instead of stalls behind her, there was a long row of urinals and a man in a black coat stood with his back to her.
Katherine eyes immediately darted away and she mentally screamed, she was mortified. Would it be rude if she just walked out? Should she apologize? Katherine tried to dry her hands as fast as she could to get the hell out of there, but in the mirror she saw the man turn around.
"If you wanted some alone time together, you could have just asked," Max's smooth voice rang out. Katherine rolled her eyes at the familiar voice and whipped around crumbling the paper towel in her hands. Seeing his smug smile flipped a switch in Katherine, she closed the gap between them and raised her hand slapping him across the face as hard as she could.
Max's one hand hand flew to his chest, he dramatically raised his other arm to put the back of his hand on his forehead. He sighed heavily loud enough for it to echo throughout the empty bathroom.
"You wound me, dear Katherine, however shall I go on," he pretended to sob out loud.
"Is everything just a big joke to you?" Katherine asked as she stepped back toward the sinks, putting her fingers to her temples to help sooth her frustration.
Max dropped his arms to his sides and shrugged his shoulders.
"It depends on the how funny the situation is," He paused to squint his eyes at her with a half smile, "And I think this situation is hilarious."
That was it, Katherine was at her breaking point she just wanted to hit something, and this man was the perfect punching bag. She leaned back onto the sink using her hands to keep her steady and brought her legs to chest. She relished watching the smile fall from his face as she used both of her legs to kick him as hard as she could.
Max flew backwards in to the wall behind him with a thud, causing bits of drywall to crumble to the floor along with him.
"What the hell was that for?" He shouted at her from the ground as he checked the back of his head for blood.
"For poisoning me and getting me into this mess in the first place!" She spat back at him. Katherine balled her fists and her chest heaved, she was furious at him, at Marianne, at the whole Valley.
Max pushed himself from the floor, his tousled hair stuck up in random places, a grimace plastered on his face had Katherine taking a step back from him. He straightened out his black wool coat causing a few pieces of drywall to fall to the floor scattering into smaller bits. His gray eyes seemed darker than before, his whole demeanor had changed in seconds causing Katherine to bite her lip in worry.
"I spent four days wandering the forest throwing up black tar and pine needles," Max glowered at Katherine, "It was you, witch, who poisoned me."
Katherine's brows shot up, she hadn't done a thing to him except save his life. Annoyance and confusion rose in her chest turning it heavy, she had assumed it was Max's fault, just like she had assumed he was a human. Katherine grabbed at her head and stumbled backwards, her headache was getting worse by the minute, like her head would split open any second. Why did this keep happening to her? She felt like she was going to explode. Her fingertips started to tingle and her cuffed wrists ached.
Katherine could feel the suppressed magic Dorian had given her become unstable, clawing at her insides to be let free. She took another step back away from Max, she needed to run, to be as far away from him as she could. Katherine didn't particularly care what happened to Max, but they were tethered together. If one of them died, the other would follow shortly and she didn't feel like reuniting with Death so soon.
Max slowly approached Katherine with his hand out as if she was a wild animal that could attack at any moment.
"Stay back!" Katherine yelled out as a sharp pain erupted in her head, she clawed at her face for any form of relief, unintentionally drawing blood with her long pointed nails. Max took another step toward her and grabbed both of her hands, pulling them from her face.
Katherine was at her limit, she let out an ear piercing shriek that echoed throughout the restroom. In the same moment, one by one each of the faucets exploded sending up geysers of water that hit the ceiling. Both metal cuffs on her wrists cracked, clamoring to the floor with bang and Katherine felt an instant relief. She crumpled to the floor falling into Max taking him with her to the ground, too exhausted to hate him at the moment.
Max held Katherine's head on his lap, her eyes fluttered heavily from expending all of her energy as she peered up into his gray eyes through the small strands of hair that came loose from her bun. The air between them shifted for only a moment, but long enough for Katherine to question wether this was only a dream she was having. He smiled down on her with crinkled eyes, not his usual smug smile, but a warm genuine one. She raised her trembling hand up to his face and touched a spot of blood that started to form on his cheek where a metal piece from the faucet had grazed him leaving a thin cut.
As Katherine's finger touched his face an image flashed into her mind. Her hand recoiled so fast she banged her elbow on the floor sending a jolt throughout her body forcing her to sit up. Her eyes narrowed at Max, who sat with a puzzled look on his face, Katherine didn't know if what she had seen was real, or a reaction from touching his blood.
The only thing she had seen clearly was a young brunette boy peering at her over a book with his wide gray eyes.