Page 127 of The Incendiary

“You need to let her go!” he urged. “She’s not meant for you.”

I kept my fists clenched at my sides, desperate to hit him. “I’ve become capable of many things. Letting her go is not one of them. Give her back to me.”

“You’re thirty-one years old, Smyth!” Simeon rose to his feet. “Even if I grant your request, she’d wake up and be over a decade younger than you.”

My stomach churned at the reality that plagued me daily. I knew that she would never look at me the way she once had. Sometimes, I wondered if I should let her go and live out the rest of this life alone, surviving only on memories of her. I could just exist, then disappear, and she wouldn’t one day be burdened by the presence of a man ten years her senior obsessed with every breath she took.

Why the fuck would she want me now?

But then I remembered our promises.

Don’t ever let me stop fighting for this. For us. For freedom and for everyone who can’t fight. And… don’t ever let me stop fighting for myself.

I would be what she needed, whatever that was.

“I assumed that wouldn’t hold you back,” Simeon sneered. “After all, you had no problem ruining her the first time around.”

Darkness clouded my vision, so thick and unnatural I could barely see as I lunged forward and slammed my fist into the center of Simeon Whitlock’s face. A vile crunch split the air, and he flew backward against the chair and flat on his ass.

Blood gushed down over his mouth and chin, but he didn’t retaliate. He fished a kerchief out of his pocket and dabbed the mess away. I wondered if, deep down, he knew he deserved the blow.

“She chose me,” I hissed. “She lov⁠—”

“She chose you because you were the only choice she had! She would have latched on to a mangy mutt in a Brinnean back alley.”

“That’s not true. She—” My words caught in my throat. Was it true? Was he right?

No. He was wrong.

“She loved me,” I reassured myself out loud, “and you took our life away from us.”

“You can blame me for all of this.” Simeon’s eyes darkened with conceit and hatred as he rose to his feet. “But it was you who was reckless.” His self-righteous stoicism cracked, just for a moment. “And you have no idea how incredibly reckless you were.”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded, stomach souring with dread. He stayed silent and stone-faced. “What happened?” I croaked, stepping forward. “What happened to her? Tell me!” I raised my voice. “Tell me or⁠—”

“She was eighteen years old, Smyth!” he shouted. “How does it feel to have ruined an eighteen-year-old’s life simply because you couldn’t keep your bastard cock out of her? And for what? Just to have someone untouched?”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I gripped his collar and shoved him into the wall, then held him a few inches off the ground I wanted to slam and stomp his head into. Consumed by disgust so potent I wanted to crawl out of my skin. “It was never fucking like that, you sick asshole! She’s your niece. Your family. She’s nothing but a tool to you. And the moment I saw her, she became my everything.”

She was an angel. A gift from the gods. She was his blood, his only living family, the daughter of the sister he claimed to love, and he spoke of her like she was an object to be disregarded and bent to his every whim. How could he claim to care?

I roared in his face and dropped him to the floor. He stood quickly but leaned against the table, struggling to find his balance.

“Years ago,” he panted, “before Molochai and I acquired our power and overthrew the Rexus family, my sister and I lived in a small farming village on the northwest outskirts of Brinnea.” He wiped his nose with the handkerchief and scowled at the blood there. “My sister always had a way of making men lose their senses. All she had to do was look their way, and they were willing to go to absurd lengths to have her to themselves. I had to keep an ax by the door just to fend them off.”

“Do you think you can scare me off with a fucking ax?” I hoped he would try so I could snap it in half, pick it apart, and use the pieces to slice and splinter his skin until he told me where she was.

Simeon huffed out a humorless laugh. “No. I do not.”

“Then why are you telling me this?”

“Because she would never choose you again! You got lucky once. Just like her mother, she will have an infinite number of choices. I will ensure she makes the best choice next time.”

My body vibrated with rage. Shadows crept in through the edges of my vision, intent on consuming me. The thought of another man’s hands on my Ella made me want to do violent, horrific things.

“Please.” I forced my shaking voice to calm. “I love her. She’s all I want.”

“Loved,” Simeon tried to correct me. “You loved her.”