Page 105 of Vows of Ruin

The evening is bleeding into darkness now. The lamps are still dim, the air thick with the hangover of everything that came before. Torque stands near the door, arms folded, watching but not interfering. Max and Liam stay just behind me, close enough to breathe the same air but far enough to let this be mine.

Noah sits across from me, wrists zip-tied, jaw tight. There’s a fresh bruise blooming along his cheekbone. He looks different now, smaller somehow, but meaner for it. The kind of anger that feeds on itself until it’s all that’s left.

I don’t say anything. I just stare. Let him sit in it. Let the silence do the talking. He keeps glancing around the room like he’s looking for an ally, but there’s no one left here who’d claim him. The seconds stretch long enough for this bravado to curdle into irritation. He clears his throat, opens his mouth.

I lift a hand. Shake my head once. He shuts his mouth, stopping what was about to come out.

Another long beat passes before I finally speak. “Noah,” I say, voice low, even. “Why?”

He laughs, bitter and humorless. “Why what? Why did I help Sebastian? Why did I let him use me? Or why did I want to?”

I don’t answer. I just wait.

His smile fades as he leans forward, eyes sharp, voice dripping into something jagged. “You really want the truth?”

I don’t move. I don’t blink.

“You want to talk about using people? You built me up, made me think I could be more than what the world carved out of me. You made me believe I mattered.”

His jaw flexes, bitterness bleeding through every word.

“And then you gutted me and walked away without looking back. I tried to move one. I really did. But then I see you again—sitting pretty in Max’s penthouse, and then started a relationship with Reaper, like you finally found men worthy of the chaos in your veins.”

Behind me, I feel Max go very still. Liam’s silence sharpens into something lethal. But Noah is unraveling now, and he doesn’t see it.

He laughs once—low, broken, humorless. “Maybe Sebastian did use me. Maybe I’m nothing but the wreckage both of you left behind. But at least with him, I knew what I was.”

He lifts his chin, eyes burning with equal parts hurt and hatred.

“You made me believe I could be more—then punished me for it.”

The words land like a blade between us. Not enough to kill, but sharp enough to scar. I don’t let it show. I just stare at him until he breaks eye contact. Then I say, calmly, cold as steel. “You don’t get to talk about who I made you anymore.”

I let Noah’s last words settle for a moment, watching the way he shrinks back into himself. His jaw tightens. His gaze drops. The fire he had seconds ago flickers to embers.

I shift in my seat, leaning forward. “How did Sebastian find you?”

Nothing. Not even a twitch. “What did you give him first?”

Silence.

“What did he promise you?”

His jaw works. His eyes go dull. He’s closing himself off, the same way he used to when he didn’t want to admit the truth. The same pattern. The same wall.

“Answer me, Noah.”

He stares at the floor.

Before I can press again, Elias’s voice cuts in from behind me. “Wren.”

I glance over my shoulder. He tilts his head toward the hall. Quiet. Subtle. Urgent.

I stand slowly. Max and Liam fall in beside me instantly, shadows at my back. Riot cracks his knuckles as he steps forward toward Noah’s chair.

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Riots says, voice low and delighted.

Torque snorts from where he’s leaning against the wall. “Oh, this is gonna be fun.”