Page 67 of End of the Sword


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“I heard everything,” she answered.

Shelby blew out a long breath, running a hand over his features and dragging them down. “Fuck.”

“We have to tell Rehan. He’ll know what to do.”

“No.” Shelby shook his head, unbuttoning his coat jacket and balancing his hands on his hips. “Don’t worry about it. I have this under control. Run back to your fiancé if you must, just don’t tell him yet.”

Run back to your fiancé.

If she thought he was spitting venom while he talked to his mother moments ago, he was surely doing it with more accuracy now. The words felt like a dagger aimed straight at her heart.

Muscles along his jaw chorded as he stepped around Ace and started back off into the dark away from the celebration. Ace snarled to herself as she turned and followed after him. He could be mean to her, she deserved it. She’d kept a lot of secrets to herself while expecting him to bare his truth to her. But Rehan had done nothing but be kind to them. Rehan did not deserve the hate Shelby was giving him.

“You and me both know he has more experience with the Fae than we do.” She had to take double the steps to try to catch up to Shelby’s long stride.

“I have enough experience with the Fae. You forget I was raised by their whips.” Now Shelby was the one snarling though he hadn’t stopped moving or even bothered to look at Ace as she jogged behind him.

The edge of her gown caught under her feet threatening to send her face first into the dirt path. She yanked the material free, correcting her step and trying to make up the lost ground as Shelby fled their confrontation.

“Still there is no reason for you to be so cruel to Rehan, he has been nothing but a gracious host and a valuable ally.”

Shelby stopped. Ace’s momentum carried her into his back and she hissed, stepping back to rub the tip of her nose where it had pressed into his jacket.

“Rehan is your ally, not mine. I did not ask for him. I did not make any deals with him. There are not three of us in this scenario.” His voice raised and echoed behind him.

“Stop talking about him as if he is your enemy though! He is my friend and it only makes sense that he should be yours too.”

“Rehan and I are never going to be fucking friends. You’re delusional!”

Nails bit into Ace’s palms, her fingers curling tightly into fists. “At least your anger is pointed at me now. I deserve it. Yell at me Shelby, I know you want to. Go ahead.” She closed the space between them pushing with all her strength at his chest.

One foot stepped back from the force she’d hit him with. All of his white teeth were a flash in the dark of the night as bared them at her. “Hit me again, I dare you.”

A frustrated growl vibrated from her chest as she pushed him again putting all her frustration into the movement. Bits of her updo were coming down across her forehead and her dress felt tangled and tattered around her legs. She shoved him once, twice, three times, pushing him away from her as she gritted her teeth.

“Why are you always such an asshole?! I’m sick of it. Be mean to me, I can take it but stop taking it out on everyone else.” Her arms were moving to meet his chest again but Shelby fisted the neckline of her dress, forcing her up on her tippy-toes.

His shoulders rose and fell with short inhales and exhales that blew across her cheeks as they glared at each other no more than two inches apart. “I saw you with Mr. Fucking Perfect. Go harass him, you won’t have to teach him how to be a better person. Damn it!” His hands trembled as they held her up. “It eats me up alive inside knowing how terrible I can treat people. But I can’t stop! You are the one person I don’t want to hurt. The one person who truly makes living feel down right unbearable when I even contemplate pointing my anger toward you.”

Her ears were ringing with the volume of his words. Her heart aching for everything he said and all the things she was reading between the lines.

Shelby’s eyes closed, his fingers letting go one by one as he dropped her and headed for the door of another small home. “Go away, Ace.”

“No,” she said sternly.

“Go away!” Shelby shouted.

“Why can’t you talk to me? Or even listen to me?” Ace stopped at the bottom step that led up to the door Shelby’s frame was hovering in. He looked even taller and more menacing from this angle as she arched her neck up to see him. Even she was yelling now. She wanted to wrap her hands around his neck and strangle him until he understood that she wanted to be his friend. She needed him.

“Why don’t you get it, Ace? Can’t you see how hard I’m fucking trying for you? I don’t want to be your damn friend. Every minute I’m around you I can hardly stand it.”

“So this is all about the deal we made? There is nothing more here?” She was pointing a shaking finger at him now, demanding some sort of explanation for what she felt between them. “You’re just using me?!” She took a step up to jab her finger into his chest.

Shelby tilted back to groan up at the sky for a second before throwing his hands up. “Stop being an idiot!”

“Stop calling me names!” she screamed back, everything she’d been holding back building and peaking inside of her. Holy fire was sparking at her fingertips, it was flashing in her eyes, racing through her veins. A long ragged inhale was all she could manage to try and tame the feeling. “Explain it to me then!”

“Because I fucking love you!” His shouting only got louder, his eyes wide, shining under the moonlight that cut across the yard. “Because you are promised to Rehan, who is quite possibly everything that I willneverbe. Because watching him woo you,” he spit the words out as if they tasted terrible on his tongue, “eats away at me. Watching you walk around with that ring, watching you kiss him, it’s killing me on the inside!”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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