I hate everything about her.
I hope she gets into a really bad accident and loses a leg or something.
“She’ll… she’ll be yourqueen,” I rasp, absolutely hating the thought of him calling her that.
He wipes away the tears falling down my cheeks. But he doesn’t get the ones inside of me. Those are coming from a massive well that I don’t think will ever stop. “She’ll never be my queen,” he murmurs, and I want so badly to believe him. But –
“Arienna!”
I jerk at the sound of Fabia’s voice. I try to look over his shoulder to find her. I need her. Not him.Shewill never hurt me. “Fabia!” I cry as she runs around the bed and grabs my arm.
She tries to pull me out from under my king.
“Jace,” Richard snaps as he tries to keep me with him.
“You’re on your own,” Jace says from the archway. “This is your mess.”
Cursing, my king rolls off me at the same time Fabia yanks really hard. She stumbles back. I fly half off the bed and land on top of her.
Dragging me across the floor, she holds me tenderly. “Are you okay? What did he do? Come near her, and I’ll stab you,” she says, that last sentence a low growl.
“This has nothing to do with you,” Richard says, taking a step in our direction. “Let her go, and get the fuck out.”
“This has everything to do with me! I’m her best friend. You’re some loser she knew for three weeks. And after we go on a bender, she won’t even remember your name.”
Gods, yes. I need a drink. A lot of drinks. Anything to stop the pain.
“She’s not going anywhere.” He takes another step, and my heart stops. Fabia is serious about stabbing him.
“Don’t!” I say, and he stills in an instant.
Pain flashes across his face, but I figure if he can steal my crown to ‘protect me’, then I can tell him to stand still to do the same. Fabia already nearly killed him once, and I can’t handle a second attempt today.
Not when everything is already so crazy and raw.
“Good job, Arienna. You stay mad at him. He doesn’t deserve your forgiveness.”
I glance up at her. “He doesn’t?” It’s illegal not to forgive someone in Brownston. I’m still learning which of our rules are cult-like and which ones are okay to keep.
“Did he hurt you?” she asks.
I nod.
“A lot?”
My throat tightens as the tears start flowing again. She squeezes me in her arms, but she can’t hold all my broken pieces together. They’re splintered and cracked. I struggle to get the words out past all the shards. “He didn’t stop at my safe word.”
“Then no, he doesn’t deserve your forgiveness,” she says. “You are allowed to be mad at him for however long you want.”
“Fabia, shut the fuck up.”
Lifting my head, I glare at his blurry visage. “Don’t talk to her like that.”
“If you’d just let me explain –”
“Explain what? You promised to marryEvangeline.”
“You did what? You fucking asswipe!”
