Page 62 of Of Monsters and Mazes

Fuck my life.

Instead, I walked right past him and crouched down in front of Butterfly, who was staring vacantly into my eyes as though she was looking at a ghost. An etching of Alessi’s fox tail was branded on her arm, expertly coiled around the marks I’d left—close, but never overlapping. I could have done without the implication and symbolism of that.

Fuck.

My.

FUCKING.

Life.

I placed a hand on her cheek, which was flush and warm and lightly damp from tears. I could smell him on her and in her, and I didn’t want to acknowledge the way her lips were just a touch puffy from his classically bruising kisses. Alessi couldn’t be gentle if he tried, and I highly doubted that Butterfly inspired him to try. They’d mixed blood, saliva, and… everything, and the worst part was that I had to lie to myself to find it repulsive.

It was a fight to keep from giving into the foolish desire in the back of my mind to taste the traces of him that still lingered on her. Those taunting thoughts that wanted to know that combined flavor, like I was someone who cared about either one of them.

I balled one hand in a fist to squeeze sanity through my brain, while the other hand remained gentle and comforting as she let the weight of her head rest in my open palm.

Why did it seem like my presence soothed her? She should hate me. Marks and all, I’d never done anything to merit this kind of trust and fondness. I’d placed a tracking mark on her for Jericho, I’d placed my own marks on her by accident, but they’d only added to her grief as they made her a target for men like Alessi. Testament to that mistake was the way he hadn’t hesitated to ravish her against the wall under the thin guise of a game.

Nailing their arms together so he could assure I felt the maximum extent of our nervous system connection was an unreasonable crime against an innocent bystander. I was the biggest problem in her life, yet her vacant eyes looked at me like I was salvation in a storm, when they should be trembling at the treacherous, ruthless hurricane before her.

“Can you stand?” I whispered softly, hoping I wouldn’t disrupt her any further.

She nodded, still in that daze. I rose to my feet slow and controlled, matching the speed of her movements, but also letting her do the work of lifting and steadying herself. I kept my hand on her cheek in quiet support as I guided her upright. She was still resting her face in my palm when she straightened her posture to stand fully erect.

“Did you miss me?” I teased. The smile was an accident, but it better softened the question.

“No.” She returned my expression, and if she’d said anything else, I would have really been worried. “But I think it’ll be easier having you back.”

I rolled my eyes in playful mockery, let her go, then stepped back. I reassured her with a friendly nod, then, in one smooth motion, I tightened my fist, and I swung around directly in line with Alessi’s face. His hair wafted with the displaced air as he juked back without so much as a split second of hesitation, and my right hook narrowly missed his nose.

“You think you can just mark a tribute that I placed under my protection?” I growled, all of my calm having fully exited the conversation.

“Your protection?” Alessi scoffed as I swung on him again. As always, he dodged with hair trigger reflexes and impossible swiftness. The legends always said the Teumessian Fox couldn’t be caught, and I would be the first to verify that fact for the record if anyone ever asked. “What protection have you been providing exactly, Theron? I haven’t seen you for several hours.”

“I got here in time for you to pass the trial, didn’t I?” Though not my intent, for better or for worse, I had aided in this whole debacle now.

“Is that why you sprinted over here so quickly?” His grin was filled with the purest amusement. He knew exactly what he’d done. “Because you felt the ‘trial’ was in need of ‘completion.’”

“Very funny.” Another swing and a miss. Alessi was an exhausting person. “I didn’t realize you were that desperate for my attention.”

“Yes you did.” No shame. “And you know I’ll continue to attempt to get your attention for the rest of our existence, and you’ll continue to pretend you don’t want to give it to me far beyond your death. It’s the circle of stubbornness.”

Alessi spun around behind me and got me in a headlock. With a single motion, he swept the back of my knees with his shin, took me to the floor, and pinned me to the ground.

I reached back and managed to place a palm on each of his temples. It was only for a split second, but it was still long enough to shoot a nightmare scenario straight through his brain. It was never hard to guess his worst fears, so I didn’t need much time to paint him a proper hell scape. The image of the magic hound who always caught his prey chasing the fox who couldn’t be caught—a traumatic chapter I knew he didn’t like to talk about to this very day—was a winner every single time.

His grip loosed as the dream took hold, and I squirmed out of his headlock. He blinked his warm amber eyes rapidly until he reoriented himself to reality.

“Too far.” He shook his head with a disapproving purse of his lips. “You’re lucky I don’t have that power, or you’d be living in a hell even more personal than this one.”

I snorted at that. “What would you even show me?”

“Commitment.” Alessi said with a roll of his eyes, and I was not amused. “Something you can’t even do for a girl who you literally marked. But I’m sure you were busy making backend deals with your king again.”

I glared at him, not wanting to have to justify myself for the thousandth time. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He threw up his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine. Perhaps I don’t.”