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He heard me. He heard mebreak. No one had ever…
No one would ever again.
I moved to storm past him, and he snatched my wrist. Unable to stop myself, I reflexively struck. The flat of my palm cracking loudly against his cheek.
He didn’t let go. Even when it started to bloom red.
“You don’t have to hide your pain from me.”
My eyes burned anew, and I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t take any of this.
I ripped my arm out of his grasp and ran for the door, taking the stairs two at a time until I somehow got outside and the fresh air filled my aching lungs. I forced the tears to obey, swallowed them back down until I felt only heat and fury.
“Ava Jade,” Corvus called from inside the Nest, but I was already gone, running barefoot through the trees.
I flippeda coin over my knuckles, sighing as Ava Jade and Becca chatted in the living room while music played in the background from a Bluetooth speaker. I leaned against the black marble countertop, sipping the bourbon spiked coffee Becca made for me, glancing at my phone every few seconds.
It was getting late, but neither of them seemed ready to call it a night, happy to chat the night away and pretend I wasn’t here at all.
Ava Jade had hardly spoken to me since Corvus dropped me at her door hours ago. She’d opened it, taken one look at me, and walked away, leaving the door open for me.
I was guessing it didn’t go well between her and Corv. Judging by the light bruise on his cheek, she’d actually hit him. And somehow, he hadn’t retaliated. Corvus was a monument to self-control, but you didn’t touch him. You touched him and you died.
He let her hit him, and he did absolutely nothing.
I didn’t know what to make of that.
But whatever he did had nothing to do with me. We’d had fun the other night, hadn’t we? I knew I did.
My jaw clenched as I remembered the strain of touching her. The tremble in my fingers I hoped she hadn’t noticed.
The aching need to choke her a little longer, to cut a little deeper, to fuck her raw…
Being unable to do it.
The idea of scaring her away from me—
Of going too far and—
I tapped my phone impatiently for the third time in as many minutes, distracting myself as the screen illuminated to show no new messages or missed calls. Grey offered to come and stay with Ghost tonight, but we needed those messages crackedyesterday.
We all wanted to think we were overreacting, but I think each of us knew that wasn’t the case. I had a bad feeling. A hollow, ugly pit that’d been yawning open ever since that day she accused Corvus.
Something was very wrong, and we needed to know what it was.
If someone was threatening her…
I clutched the coin in my hand, a tremor racing down my spine, making my back heat.
They wouldn’t be asomeonewhen I was through with them. They’d be a nothing. A pile of ash at my feet.
Becca and Ava Jade turned to me, and I realized I’d begun tapping my foot, and stopped, polishing off my coffee and bourbon instead before swiping the back of my palm over my lips and refilling my mug from the flask in my back pocket.
“There’s cola in the fridge,” Becca offered. “If you want to mix that.”
I shook my head. “Too sweet.”
“Suit yourself.”
