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Three.
I let out all my air and straightened my nose before it could heal crooked. Pain spread from my nose through my body for a second, but then it was over. I’d learned the hard way to always set my nose if there wasn’t any more fighting happening. I’d moved too slowly before and it always hurt so much worse to reset it when it was broken and healed.
I wiped the blood from my face with my T-shirt. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
The man crossed his arms. “I’m trying to fix your head.” He stared at me as if I were a puzzle he was trying to solve. “You should be grateful.”
Maybe I should be. There was something about the guy that I didn’t like, but I couldn’t deny the fact that my head was in a fog.
“Leave him,” Van said. “I don’t want trouble again, Ziriel. This time I will show you the full force of who I am.”
“Hold your threats. I’ve been told to help him remember, so I’m helping him remember.” Ziriel gave Van a look. “Even I won’t go against Eli’s wishes.”
Ziriel turned back to me and his eyes started to glow bright red.
I stumbled back. “A demon.”
“Not a demon.”
Then what the fuck was he?
He studied me for a minute, his hand stroking his beard. “Ah. Something more subtle then. I think I get it now.”
He placed his hand on my head before I could move.
The searing pain was back again—quick and fierce—but then it was gone. And when it left, the fog in my brain was gone. My wolf growled. The haze over my memories lifted. I could think again.
And I had answers again.
Everything I’d forgotten—that Cosette had made me forget—came rushing back.
It wasn’t some faceless fey that had pulled me from the pit. Cosette sat with me. Cared for me. And from the moment we became friends behind that police station. To the picnics and hikes. The stolen moments and texts and messages where we shared our biggest fears, dreams, everything.
The moment when I knew I loved her as more than a friend. That I wanted her more than anything. And the second right after it when I realized I couldn’t ever have her. That I was too weak. Even after everything I survived, I wasn’t strong enough to be with her.
To Eli coming. And realizing that she was my mate. To Van sitting at my table, telling me not to trust Gales and not to touch the meat. But I already knew all that. He didn’t have to tell me. I wasn’t a fucking idiot. I knew the meat smelled wrong.
Damn it, Cosette.
I wanted to feel betrayed, but I understood why she did it. I understood what drove her to cross that line.
But damn it, Cosette.
She should’ve trusted me to know what I felt and how I felt.
I realized I was in the hallway with Van, Ziriel, and the little beast, when I should’ve been back in that room with Cosette. Telling her how badly she’d just fucked up.
“Excuse me. I need to speak to someone.” The guards made way as I ran down the hallway.
“You owe me.” Ziriel yelled at my back, but his voice had a hint of threat in it.
I didn’t like that. Not at all.
I spun to him, not slowing my pace much as I ran backward. “Do I? Or did Eli tell you to do it?” I didn’t ask him to fix me, and I wasn’t going to make a bargain with him over something he’d already done. Not unless I had to.
He shrugged. “This one’s on the house. Next time, you’ll pay like anyone else.”
“Fine.” Because it wasn’t going to happen again. Cosette was going to stay out of my head until I broke the lunar tie. Like I told her I was going to do.
