“What does it look like?” Wren seethed, ignoring the heat rising to her cheeks.
“Well.” August cleared his throat. “It appears as though you intend to bludgeon me with a candleholder. And though I have to admit the weapon of choice is…creative…I can’t imagine it would be very effective.”
Asshole.
Wren didn’t even bother with a response. She simply lunged forward, swinging the candleholder with all her might, though August’s hand was gripping her wrist before the blunt edge could make contact with the side of his face. She groaned through gritted teeth, attempting to rip herself free of his grasp, but August was strong. Even more so than he had been back at Blackwood. Something had changed inside him. Wren could tell that he was barely putting any effort into holding her back.
Thathewas holding back.
“Screw you,” Wren spat out.
“Oh, come on, Loughty.” August let out a low chuckle, inching closer. “I’m sure you can come up with something a bit more clever than that.”
“What the hell do you want?”
The teasing smirk on August’s lips faded. “I want to talk,” he whispered. “To explain.”
“Explain what?” Wren scoffed. “How you lied to me from the moment we met at Blackwood? How our relationship was just some…someploy. Some Demien Order tactic—” But August cut her off before she could continue, tugging her closer. And though his grip was firm, Wren could tell he was restraining his strength, never once pressing down hard enough to actually hurt her.
“Don’t.” The word slipped out of him, hoarse and desperate. His face was inches away from hers now, close enough that Wren could make out the small line of scar tissue beneath his right eye. The soft curve of his lips. “We’re not doing this. We’re not playing right into Edith’s game. You know just as well as I do that what we had—what wehave—is real.”
Wren flinched. “You gave up your humanity.”
“I did,” August replied with a nod. “And I’d do it again. I’d do it ten times over.”
“Why?”
August’s brows creased together. He tilted his head, eyes snaking up and down her face.
The next words he spoke were a breathless confession.
“You know why.”
The words were enough to knock the breath from her lungs. She knew the threaded meaning behind them. The truth echoing in the silence. But could she truly trust him? After everything she had learned? After everything she had seen?
“You expect me to believe that all ofthis”—Wren gestured to the shadows swimming beneath the veins of August’s exposed forearms—“is for my benefit?”
“I made a promise,” August whispered. “And I keep my promises.”
Wren didn’t need him to elaborate. She knewexactlywhat promise he was referring to.
Find me. Wherever you are, wherever we end up, don’t stop looking for me.
August let out a disgruntled sigh. He released Wren’s wrist, stepping away from her. Wren blinked, taken aback by the sudden distance. She was free to attack him now. To run. But something in the way he looked at her had her frozen in place, unable to tear her gaze away from him.
“Look.” August rubbed the back of his neck. “I knew Edith wouldn’t even entertain the idea of letting me back into the Order if I didn’t do something dramatic. Something to catch her attention.”
Wren snorted. “Well, congratulations. I’d say removing your humanity and condemning your soul to an eternity trapped in purgatory is pretty fucking dramatic.”
August’s jaw clenched. “I did what I had to do.”
“You know what this means for you, don’t you?” Wren stepped closer. She found her hand reflexively reaching for his face, though she stopped herself. She was terrified to cross that line between them again. To allow herself to touch him. “You can never move on, August. You can never cross over to the Other Side.”
August smiled, but there was a sadness reflected in his gray eyes. “That was never in the cards for me.”
“According to who?”
August had opened his mouth to answer when a sudden noise stole their attention. Footsteps echoed in the distance. The muffled rumble of voices. August raised his index finger to his mouth, and Wren held her breath, listening. Luckily, whoever they were, they didn’t seem to be getting any closer, and a few seconds later, the footsteps receded.
