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I gave nothing. I’d already given enough.
So he kissed me, and when I didn’t respond, he started pulling off my shirt.
“I don’t consent to this,” I said, not fighting him.
He stopped what he was doing and stared at me, his anger growing with each passing second.
“You are mine, Andie,” he growled.
“What exactly is it that you think I am? Your puppet? The female puzzle piece you needed to complete your picture of perfect domestic bliss?”
Some of the heat left his gaze, and this time, when his hand touched the back of my head, it wasn’t the authoritative grab he so often used. It was a gentle caress. A palm sliding over my hair.
“You are my heart, Andie. My reason to live in this world that has given me nothing but pain and loneliness. Please. Do not retreat from me.”
“I wasn’t retreating. I’m still not. There’s nothing for me to retreat from. Any relationship I thought we’d been building on mutual understanding was just a lie. Because you don’t really understand why I don’t want kids. You listened as if you did. You told me it didn’t matter, as if it truly didn’t. But now we both know the truth. You do want kids, Molev, and you are not okay with the fact that I don’t.”
I straightened my shirt and sat up. He retreated just enough to allow it but continued to glare at me, his fingers twitching at his sides.
“And if you would have paid any attention at all when I had to say goodbye to Zion, you would know I don’t hate kids. Not at all.”
I stood, and his hands locked onto my shoulders.
“We both know I can’t leave unless you allow it, but keeping me here won’t resolve our non-relationship; it’ll only jeopardize finding a way to save the women who are willing to have your babies. We’re running out of time, which you already know.”
He looked like he was two seconds from snapping as he inhaled deeply then exhaled. Seeing that barely-contained rage did things to me—things I didn’t like or want to acknowledge anymore.
“I need to check with the doctor again,” I said. “Since your discussion with Mya was cut short, you should head back there and discuss destroying the crystal.”
“We are not done, Andie,” he said when I started for the door.
I paused. “With what exactly?”
“Us.”
“You’re focusing on the wrong thing. If we don’t find a way to stop what’s coming, whether or not there is an ‘us’ won’t even matter.”
He didn’t try to stop me a second time, and I grabbed my jacket on the way out the door.
Rather than walking to Eitri’s, I jogged. It helped calm my mind and keep my thoughts centered on the problem of living, instead of the problem of loving. Because no matter how hard I’d tried not to acknowledge it, I’d fallen hard for Molev, which only made the pain of his betrayal that much worse.
Forcing the hurt and anger aside, I concentrated on what lay ahead. Molev’s instinct said that time was running out. How many days did we have to get to the underground crystal and destroy it before this place was overrun by infected and hounds?
I’d studied the map and knew that we could reach Irving, Texas, the opening to the crater and the gateway to Molev’s world, in a day if we drove straight through and didn’t have to worry about traps or daylight. But the likelihood of that wasn’t high, which meant two days minimum, and who knew how much longer to reach the crystal’s location.
If we were going, we couldn’t delay.
I knocked on Eitri’s door and saw he wasn’t wearing his crystal when he answered.
“Any word from the doctor?” I asked.
“Yes. She said she needed more crystals and has been whispering into her radio that she hides in the back corner of the basement.”
I paused on my way to the steps and looked at him. “How do you know she’s using a radio?”
“I can hear the squeal when she turns it on.”
“What does she say?”
