Page 87 of Glutton for Punishment

“Thank the universe!” I throw my arms around her, falling in my attempt at a hug. She catches me hard, gripping my shoulders the second we pull apart and scanning me. “Are you hurt? Did you hit your head? Are you bleeding?”

“Stop. I’m fine. What about you? Are you hurt?” I eye the trickle of blood from her neck.

“I’m fine. It’s barely a flesh wound.”

Maddox rips the bottom part of his shirt off and hands it to her absently, staring up at the giant hole in the ceiling. “Hold it against your neck until the bleeding stops. I’ll find someone to check it over.”

Maddox’s hand moves to my back, holding me steady when my knees threaten to give when a flash of red hair catches my attention.

Amaya stands several feet away amid the wreckage, dust coating one side of her pristine ivory outfit, hair disheveled for the first time since I met her.

She’s also staring at the hole in the ceiling. Mouth agape, unmoving.

“Amaya,” I rasp, grabbing Maddox’s arm. “Amaya was going to take Cleo. She was threatening me to convince you to stand down. She—”

Maddox goes very quiet. His dark eyes lift from me to Amaya, and whatever had been in them—the worry, the relief—drains out completely, like a light being switched off.

He hands me off to Cleo without another word and stalks toward his sister.

“What are you playing at? Did you threaten my bond?” he growls.

Amaya straightens and regains her composure.

Maddox reaches her and his hand closes around her throat. He slams her into the cracked wall so hard that more debris shakes loose from the ceiling.

Cleo gasps next to me as I hold on to her and track the interaction. Amaya’s feet almost leave the floor as Maddox raises her higher.

Still she smiles.

“What am I playing at?” she says, voice strained but somehow still mocking. Her gaze flicks past him, to me. “Look around you, Maddox.”

Her smile widens.

“Seems someone has been keeping a very big secret.”

“I will kill you,” he grits out.

Amaya gives a breathy laugh despite his grip. “We both know you can’t touch me here. Not unless you’d like to declare formal war or upset father.”

Maddox’s jaw flexes.

“Go ahead,” she taunts. “Make your empty threats.”

“I may not be able to kill you,” he says as his grip tightens. He looks at me… then back to her, and Amaya’s composure cracks just slightly.

“You wouldn’t dare. Father would kill her,” Amaya says frantically. “And you know it.”

Maddox leans closer, and Amaya struggles.

“You need to leave,” he says, voice low enough to make my skin prickle. “Crawl back to your territory, Indulgence Heights.”

He releases her just enough for her to breathe.

“But understand me, Amaya. If I see you in any of my territories, or in any territory Arwen occupies—”

“I will kill you. Consequences be damned.”

She swallows.