Page 96 of Storm and Sea

Leo looked at him, really looked. And he didn’t cringe. His gaze didn’t linger on Nephi’s ruined eye or the scars still visible despite the hood.

He just… looked. As though Nephi were as common as a scallop. It was surprising.

“It’s fucking hard to ignore,” Nephi replied instead, forcing his gaze back to the horizon.

“I bet.”

Nephi was like a sail on tenterhooks. Strained to the point of snapping. His insides were being pulled in all directions at once. He could end this. End this persistent itch in his brain. Kill the boy and be done with it. Leave this Spirits-forsaken island.

He’s here. He’s exposed. And he’s mine.

Nephi wanted to grab Leo, to break him. To feel the brittle snap of bone beneath his grip, to see the light drain from his eyes. To reduce him to nothing but a crumpled heap. To tear him apart…

Piece

By

Piece

However, as Nephi sneaked another glimpse, he knew he was too late. Someone else had already started chipping away at this human. It was written all over his angled body. In his red eyes, his dark circles. Painted in the sickly color of his skin.

“Why are you sitting here crying?” Nephi asked harshly.

Who did this?

He needed to know.

He needed to punish whoever hurt Leo because if anyone was going to break this human—his human—it would be him.

Nephi couldn’t pinpoint when Leo became his. Maybe it was the first time his life fell into Nephi’s claws. It didn’t matter. Leo belonged to him. His right. His obsession. His prey.

“Does it matter?” Leo responded. “And I wasn’t crying.”

Nephi’s nose wrinkled, and the beginnings of a growl rumbled in his chest.

“Awfully defensive for someone hiding on a secluded beach, definitely not crying.”

“Awfully nosy for someone who won’t even give me a name,” Leo snapped, “or completely show his face.”

Nephi grinned, leaning back on one hand and sinking into the sand. His prey had teeth.

And he liked it.

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter. It’s nothing I can’t handle. For now, at least,” Leo said, tossing a stone into the waves.

“So it has the potential to get worse. Is that what I’m hearing?”

Leo swallowed hard. “Yes. But it won’t come to that.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Nephi crooned.

“You have no idea what we’re talking about.”

“Oh, but I know that things that can get worse usually do.”

“That’s pessimistic.”

“It’s realistic.”