Page 86 of Bloom in Darkness

Astra lets out a breath beside me, rough enough that I hear it over the room.

Rourke says, “You see? This is what they’ve done to you.”

Astra turns toward him slowly. “You brought the fucking gun.”

Silas catches Rourke’s arm. “We’re leaving.”

Rourke jerks free. “No, we’re not.”

Caelan steps between them and the stairs. “Yes. You are.”

Rourke ignores him, looking at Astra again. “Come here.”

Astra actually laughs. “Go fuck yourself.”

Rourke lunges again, and I meet him before he gets two steps, my fist catching his mouth hard enough to send him backward into a folding chair. He barely catches himself before coming straight back at me.

He can hit me all he wants. He isn’t getting to Astra.

Silas moves at the same time. Caelan catches him around the middle and drives him into the ring post, taking one shot to the ribs before hooking Silas’s ankle and bringing him to the floor.

The room erupts around us. Somebody yells for Forrest while one of the fighters starts toward me, stopping when I shout for everyone to stay back. Rourke comes back swinging, but I duck beneath the first hit, bury a fist under his ribs, and catch the back of his neck when he folds, driving him face-first into the ring apron.

He claws for my wrist and manages to turn, blood already running from his mouth. “You think he belongs to you?”

“No.” My next punch drives him sideways. “He chose me.”

Rourke gets an elbow into my side, shoving me back long enough to look past my shoulder toward Astra. The second he turns, I drive another hit across his jaw, sending him sideways onto one knee near Astra before he reaches for him anyway.

Astra steps in and drives the heel of his shoe straight into Rourke’s face. Rourke hits the concrete hard, blood pouring from his nose before Astra even gets his foot back under him.

Astra stands over him, breathing hard. “I said no.”

Rourke’s hand shoots toward Astra’s ankle, and I’m on him before his fingers close, driving him back into the concrete and hitting him until the hand reaching for Astra drops away. Caelan grabs my shoulder and says my name, but I wrench free, the gun skidding across the concrete replaying every time my fist comes down.

My knuckles split against Rourke’s face before someone catches the back of my shirt, and I know before I turn that it isn’t Caelan.

“Bryn.”

I hear Astra, but my hands still won’t open. He comes closer even when Caelan says his name behind us, his fingers sliding from my shirt to the back of my neck. “Look at me.”

I turn. Blood streaks one of Astra’s knees, his hair is a mess, and both mating marks stand bright against his throat. He looks furious enough to start the fight all over again, but all I can register is that he’s standing in front of me alive.

“I want to go home.”

My fist loosens against my thigh. Astra crouches in front of me on the other side of Rourke, keeping his attention on me instead of the man on the floor. “Come home with me.” The words finally get through whatever is still roaring in my head, my fist loosening the rest of the way as I sit back on my heels.

Caelan gets between me and Rourke immediately. Forrest is there now too, coming down the stairs with two guards behind him and a phone already in his hand. Silas is on the floor by the ring post with one arm pinned behind him by one of the fighters. Caelan’s lip is split. He looks at me once, sees I’m staying where I am, then looks down at Rourke.

“Don’t move,” he tells him, ignoring whatever Rourke groans from the floor as Forrest and the guards move in.

By the time they have Rourke pinned down and separated from us, Astra grips my wrist again. “I fought him too. I picked up the gun. I almost—”

I close my hand around his. “And then you gave it to me.”

Astra presses his lips together, so I tighten my hand around his. “That matters.”

Forrest crouches long enough to look at Rourke, then stands again. “Police are already on the way. The gun is secured. Cameras got the stairs, the floor, and most of this side of the ring.” He looks Astra over once. “Do you need an ambulance?”