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“Shut the fuck up. Don’t be stupid. Primal Ethos isn’t dead, not unless you let it die.”
His expression darkened, his gaze never leaving the ceiling. “You don’t get it, Sparrow. It’s over. The Bone Man—the mystery of him—that was the allure. Without it, I’m just another jackass with a microphone.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed, and his forehead creased, betraying a rage he usually kept tampered down.
“I’m sorry but that’s fucking bullshit. Have you looked online at all since you were outed?”
He didn’t answer. It was answer enough. He hadn’t.
I shook my head. “You should. If anything, they’re even more mad for you now than they were before.”
I wasn’t going to let him do this. He was too talented to throw this all away. With or without Diesel’s permission, he needed it. Pushing to my feet, I grabbed both his hands, dragging him up from the bed. “Come on, show me what you were working on.”
“We need to check in with Diesel.”
“He can wait another hour.”
“Sparrow—”
“Just do this for me, okay? Show me what you’re working on. Maybe I can help. And then as soon as we’re done, I promise you we will go and check in with the others.”
His resistance weakened as I hauled his ass to his feet and toward the closet, dragging him into the small enclosed space with me. I dropped his hands and lifted the mic back into position, fiddling with it until it sat properly in the stand.
“Okay. Now show me.”
“It’s just rough shit. It isn’t even finished yet. It’s… it’s missing something, but I can’t fucking figure it out.”
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. Was Corvus James nervous to show me something? It wasn’t a look I’d seen on him before. It was… kind of cute.
I reached past him and shut the door behind us, feeling a tingle go up my spine at the feeling of being in a confined space, of him being so close I could feel the press of him like a physical touch even though we were nearly a foot apart.
“I’m waiting,” I prompted him, looking up at him coyly from beneath my lashes. Fuck. Had he always been this tall? In the tight space, he seemed to tower over me, and from the way he was looking at me, I could tell his mind had gone to a similar place as mine.
I swallowed. Cleared my throat.
Corvus smirked before lifting his phone from his back pocket to tap the screen, bringing up what appeared to be some rough lyrics in a notepad app.
“Since you’re here, mind giving me some rhythm?”
“Hmm?”
He hit a section of not padded wall with the side of his closed fist to create a simple beat, showing me what he meant.
I stepped closer, copying the beat until I had it right and he could lower his fist.
Surprising me, he reached up and caught the string dangling from the light above us and tugged it, plunging us into darkness. The rhythm of my fist on the wall faltered and my pulse picked up, but I recovered quickly, my belly tightening as Corvus began to hum into the dark. A deep sound that I felt all the way to my toes as he moved through the opening of the song.
He began to sing, filling the small space with his voice so fully that he could have been singing inside of my head. His rough voice ricocheting through my body as he sang of being stronger.
About how he thought he’d made himself into something that couldn’t be affected. Couldn’t be broken. Couldn’t be hurt. How he never saw me coming.
The lyrics hit me hard. I could’ve written them myself, and when he began the chorus again, my voice rose to meet his, feeling the truth of the song flow through me like I was nothing but a vessel.
Our voices trailed off as one, and I was left momentarily breathless, body aching. Pulse throbbing with a need so pure it could’ve brought me to my knees.
“Sparrow,” Corvus whispered, and I felt him grow nearer in the pitch darkness. His knuckles brushed down the back of my arm, making me shiver and a little gasp escape my lips. “I think you were the thing that was missing.”
Rough fingertips found my temple and skated down the line of my jaw until they rested against my lips, making them part.
