“We’ll start your training tomorrow,”he tells me.“I’ll come find you after breakfast.”
Training. I wonder what that’s going to entail. Incitement, I assume, which makes me uneasy because that’s the one ability I’ve never been able to get a good grasp on, and the one that scares me the most. The idea of robbing someone of their free will never fails to wind my stomach into knots.
I think about Travis’s broadcast again, the fear tactics he’d employed to scare the Primes into believing every Mod is cackling with evil intent, eager to corrupt their minds. Meanwhile, I’d give anything not to be able to incite.
I roll onto my side and reach out to Cross, because the sound of his voice always soothes me.
“You good, Dove?”
Sure enough, an immediate sense of peace settles over me.“I’m good. Just needed to hear your voice.”I hesitate.“I wish you’d given me a heads-up about your brother’s big speech.”
“His speech?”
“The melodramatic morning broadcast? All his nonsense about being on the right side of history and destroying the Uprising one silverblood at a time? Scaring the shit out of everyone over what happened to your father?”
“Right. Sorry. My mind is elsewhere right now.”
“Were you at the Capitol with him?”
“No. I’m on the base.”
“I don’t like that you’re there without backup,”I say miserably.“I wish Xavier stayed behind. What if Travis figures out you’re a Mod?”
“I went my whole life without anybody in my family figuring it out,”he reminds me.“If I had silver veins, who knows, maybe my father would’ve put a bullet in my head. But luckily, I don’t. Nobody has ever even suspected me.”
“You’re not safe there,”I insist.
“I’m safe. I promise.”
He’s quiet for a moment. Then he curses, and there’s something raw and tortured about it. Something very unlike Cross.
“I wish you were here. I think about you every second of the fucking day.”His voice is thick with longing.“Helps me pass the time.”
I frown, even though he can’t see it.“I thought your brother was keeping you busy.”
There’s another pause.“He is. Just wish you were with me, that’s all.”
“And what would you do if I were there?”
It’s not intended as a tease, but the moment the question slips out, I realize how suggestive it sounds.
A heavy groan echoes in my mind, making me shiver. “I’d kiss you until your lips were bruised. Fuck you until your legs were weak.”
I bite my lip, a bolt of arousal going right to my core.“Sounds dangerous.”
Cross groans again, the husky sound edged with the same desire burning in my blood.“Goddamn it, Daisy, I’ve never craved anyone the way I crave you.”
I know exactly how he feels.
“I wish I were there, too,”I say softly.
He doesn’t answer.
“Wolf?”I say, fighting a twinge of panic.
“I have to go. Roe’s here.”
“Reach out again when you’re—”
