I wash the shampoo out of my hair and let out a sigh. Even in the shower, she’s here, taking up room in my mind.
So damn annoying.
“Your head is going to explode if you keep thinking so hard,” Julian says from the other side of the curtain before sniffing the air. “Actually, I think I smell it…”
He laughs at his own joke, and I roll my eyes, hearing him spit and rinse his toothbrush.
Har har.
I feel the shudder in the air and quickly pull the curtain back.
“Don’t you dare,” I hiss, reaching out to grab his arm, grounding him and earning myself a glare that would make lesser men crumble. Hell, I almost do, but this, what he’s trying to do, is dangerous.
His magic fizzles out, and I reluctantly let him go.
“You can’t keep pushing it, Julian. She’s not stupid.” I pull the curtain back in place before I soak the rest of the bathroom. Even with the curtain between us, I feel his gaze. I hate when we fight, but I know it’s coming.
Shifting between the realms is easy enough for him, but explaining it, not so much, and she’d called him out on it right away. Thankfully, he’d been smart enough to get a key made to explain, but something tells me that won’t hold up forever, and if he keeps pushing his luck, there will be consequences.
She’s ruining everything, but I won’t let her destroy him. I can’t; she can do whatever else she wants, but hurting Julian, intentionally or not, is not an option for everyone, not just her.
“How hard was that for you to admit out loud?” I hear the sass in his question and, once again, roll my eyes.
“It’s not hard to admit she’s smart. She beats Gavin. Only an idiot would argue about her brains.”
“So then, what is it that makes you hate her?”
His question stops me short, fingers buried in my hair as I rinse it clean.
Do I hate her?
It takes me a second, but I really dig deep, and while I might not love that she’s here or spending so much time with Julian, I still don’t hate her.
“I don’t hate her,” I tell him, getting back to washing my hair. This shower has already taken much longer than necessary.
“Well, you must have some kind of problem with her. You avoid her every chance you get if she’s not with me. You only speak German around her so that she can’t understand what you're saying, and you try to stare a hole through her skull whenever she’s around.” I don’t need to look to know he’s ticking each thing off on his fingers as he goes.
“I don’t glare at her…”Do I?
“Yes, you do.”
“What does it matter? So what if I don’t like her? There are plenty of people I don’t like. Most people actually!” That’s the truth, too. I just don’t do people, especially not the way he does.
“Yes, but you don’t like her more than you don’t like the general public. You’ve never gone out of your way to speak another language so other people can’t understand you. It seems petty even for you, so what is it about her?”
He’s not going to let this go, and honestly, I don’t really have an answer he’s going to like. This is going to be an argument. I can feel it, but I also don’t think we can avoid it.
“Everything,” I tell him in hopes that being honest will help to put out some of this fire before it hits a full blaze.
Everything about Wren is perfect, and the more I see her with Julian, the more I think they might be perfect together, and that scares the shit out of me.
I’ve never needed anything or anyone in my life, not since my mother died, but I need Julian.
The curtain whips open, and Julian is there, staring at me, reading every damn emotion that I’m sure is written all over my face the way only he can.
“Theodore,” his voice is quiet, and I hear the sadness in that one word, my full name.
He knows I hate it, but worse, I hate the way he’s looking at me right now.
