“It was still wrong.”
“Yes.”The simple agreement settles something inside me.No defending him and no explaining away what he did.No making his fear more important than my right to know.
Just yes.
Ari licks chocolate from her thumb.“For what it’s worth, Malichai also tried to make decisions for me in the name of protection.I threatened his favorite body parts.”
“That worked?”
“Eventually.”
Akasha snorts with an eye roll.“After a lot of yelling.”
“Healthy communication,” Ari corrects.
I take a sip of tea.It’s warm and sweet and annoyingly comforting.“Does the bond mean I’ll want him because of magic?”
Neither woman answers too quickly, and I appreciate that less.
Ari’s voice is careful.“The bond can intensify what is already there.It can pull.It can make emotions louder.But it doesn’t create something from nothing.”
Akasha nods.“And it’s not consent.It’s never consent.The choice is still yours.”
My throat tightens.Mine.Choice.Words everyone keeps offering me like little weapons I can carry.“What if I don’t know where the bond ends and I begin?”I ask.
Ari’s face changes.For once, the bright mask slips.“Then you go slowly.You test the truth.You ask yourself what you want when the room is quiet.”
When the room is quiet, I look toward the window.Outside, Brooklyn glows like a city made of restless ghosts.What do I want when the room is quiet?I want to sleep without fear.I want the people below The Marrow House to be free.I want the monsters who took me to learn what it means to be hunted.I want Knox to look at me the way he did on the roof, like touching my face was breaking him open, and he was grateful for the wound.
Heat crawls up my throat.
Ari grins.“Oh, that face is informative.”
“I have no face.”
“You have a very loud face.”
Akasha smiles into her tea.
I groan and press my fingers to my eyes.“I am not equipped for this.”
“No one is equipped for Minotaur devotion,” Ari says.“It should come with a warning label.”
A knock sounds at the open doorway before I can answer.All three of us turn.I move toward the door and open it only to find Knox standing in the hallway.
He fills the doorway without trying.Black shirt.Dark jeans.Hair tied back.Hands loose at his sides, though nothing about him is loose.His gaze moves over the room, taking in Ari, Akasha, the snacks, my tea, and the knife still on the side table.
Then his eyes find mine, and the air changes.It does that now.Or maybe it always did, and I was too busy surviving to notice.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” he says.
Ari pops the rest of the pastry into her mouth.“Yes, you did.”
Knox doesn’t look away from me.“Yes.”
Akasha stands, fighting a smile.“That’s our cue.”
“It is?”I ask, suddenly panicked.
