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Siena reels her hand back, slapping me hard across the side of my face. “You don’t know anything,” she yells, sapphires boring into me. “Rhenn loves me. Which is a hell of a lot more than anyone can say for you. Your own parents burned themselves to the ground just to get away from you.”
The sting radiating over my cheek is nothing compared to the plunging jab of truth she seems to have no shame letting spill from her lips. How could Rhenn tell her that?
My father was gone before I met him, lost to the flames, and my mother left soon after. Ran as far away as she could. Everyone in my life has wanted nothing to do with me. Which is why the pendant she took means so much, because there has only ever been one person who saw me. Who didn’t hurt me. Who never ran.
Images of the little boy wiping my tears away while his cheeks are still slick with his own flood through me. Memories from the day we were taken from each other, and years later when he’d found me again. I was so freaking broken. Am. His gift with the two simple words was more meaningful than I could ever express.
Still breathing.
Because after everything, after every heartache, after each painful bruise, I was still here. We still had each other.
And now I have no one.
The front door to the house swings open and the man who started this all steps out, attention quickly drawing to the two of us.
“Well, well, well,” Rhenn says, making his way beside his equally twisted counterpart. “What sort of trouble have we found ourselves in today?”
“Make her give it back.” I’m close to begging and I don’t care. It’s the only thing that’s mine, and it’s so incredibly important to me.
Rhenn follows my stare to the silver hanging over Siena’s chest, then looks back at me. “You want your necklace, Vix?”
I nod, feeling a hint of hope at the softness in his voice. He brushes his fingers over the pendant, forcing Siena’s eyes to close when they also brush against her. The chain breaks from her neck when he tugs against it.
Rhenn holds it out for me, and a sigh of relief washes through me. I allow a small smile. They can have whatever else they want, everything but this.
He pulls it away when I move to grab it. “Strays beg for what they want.”
Of course he wasn’t going to just give it to me. He couldn’t make anything easy. Tears sting in my eyes, and I want so badly to tell them both to screw off, but I’m desperate. “Please. This is the one thing I have left. I’ve lost everything. Please don’t make me lose this too.”
He stands unmoved for only a moment, then brings his free hand to caress the underside of my jaw, speaking in a hushed tone. “Not good enough.”
I watch as he throws my necklace far past the house, into the sea of thorned thicket, and my entire chest sinks.
“Aw, are you gonna cry now?” Siena mocks. “How pathetic.”
Rhenn stands, watching me, like he wants to see if I do. Which is exactly why I won’t. I won’t give either of these psychos the satisfaction.
“In the house, Vix,” he tells me when I do nothing.
“Screw you.”
He chuckles, placing his hand over my chest to hold me in place while Siena wraps her arms around his neck. He doesn’t fight when she brings her lips to his, shoving her tongue down his throat like it’s supposed to mean something to me.
“In the house if you want to continue having a place to stay going forward,” he utters against her mouth.
I listen, partly because I do need a place to stay, but mostly because no one wants to see that gross shit.
Standing in the center of the room, I close my eyes and take several deep breaths. This is only temporary.
Eventually, the door opens and a single set of footsteps echoes through the hall. Rhenn drops to the armchair, sitting with his legs spread in that way guys do. He looks relaxed, like he wasn’t just pressing hard enough against me to form a bruise, like he didn’t just throw away my entire world.
When he says nothing, I take that as my okay to leave.
“Going somewhere?”
“Far away from you,” I mutter.
“Not so fast.” His arms rest over the sides of the small recliner, full attention on me. “Down on all fours.”
