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“I’m glad to hear it. Without sounding insensitive, I’m going to need you to come in and explain where in the Nine Hells you’ve been for two weeks. Ten this morning work for you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll see you then, Teddy.”
“Yes, sir.”
I hang up while he’s saying goodbye because I don’t trust my voice, or what I might say to anyone right now. I put the phone back on the charging pad next to the bed. The realization that I’ll have to buy myselfanothernew phone nudges my rage that little bit higher as I dress and quietly let myself out of our suite with the key Charlie’s stuck in his backpack’s front pocket like he always does.
The ground under my feet shivers and rolls as I walk from Ouroboros to Phoenix Quad. There are already people out and about, despite how recently the sun’s risen. None of them get near me as I storm toward Phoenix A. One bastard’s unlucky enough to cross my path as I’m climbing the stairs towards Darwin’s room. One look at my face sends him scuttling in the other direction.
Finally, I stand in front of Darwin’s door, panting from more than having climbed ten flights of stairs. His door isn’t like any of the others. It’s dark, polished wood with a brass plaque that says “Dùbhghlas,” like this penthouse is reserved specifically for Darwin’s family. The other doors I’ve passed, all gray metal, have just had numbers painted on them.
I don’t even try to get a handle on my anger as I pound on that engraved plate.
Darwin, sleep rumpled and wearing pajamas in his family’s fucking tartan, opens the door.
I punch him in the throat.
Chapter11
Darwin the Devil
Ipull my punch, so I don’t crush his larynx, or break my knuckles on his spine the way I’ve been imagining for months. It still takes him to his knees with a strangled cry.
“Dar?” Gabe’s mink-dark head pokes from around an archway that opens into a huge, plush lounge. Whether the college converted this floor into a suite for Darwin or just gave him the poshest rooms in the place, Darwin’s certainly not living like the rest of the plebs. From what I can see from the doorway, his suite is at least four rooms with a full kitchen and a bar in the lounge. Behind me, across the hall and next to double metal doors that I’m guessing are an elevator I missed on the way in, a glassed-in gym takes up the rest of the floor. There’s no one in it and since I’m in a building full of jocks, I’m guessing it’s his private gym.
Fucking Princely.
Gabe hitches up the gray sweatpants riding low on his hips and rushes towards me, arms outstretched.
Before he grabs me, I stop him with a finger planted in his bare chest. Rejecting him for the very first time.
He stops like I’ve punched him. Stares at me with wide eyes.
“Eleven days,” I say. “I was gone eleven days and you fucked Charlie over.”
He starts shaking his head, but I see the truth in his eyes. He thought I was gone. Whether the dream bridge didn’t work on his end, or he just didn’t believe it, he thought I was really gone. I spent every waking, and sleeping, moment devoted to getting back to my boys. I withheld myself physically from two men who needed me because I felt like I was betraying the two boys in front of me. All the while, they were betraying me. Betraying our foursome. Leaving Charlie to deal with his fear and grief alone.
Darwin pulls himself to his feet, gripping the doorway, fire turning his silver eyes a burning gold.
Ireachwithin and turn my skin to stone in case he decides to throw another fucking phoenix at me.
“Teddy,” Gabe chokes.
I level Darwin with a hard stare. “One thing. I told you there was one thing I would not forgive. And as soon as you thought I was gone, you did it.”
Princely swallows hard, his Adam’s apple working. Probably against a bruised throat. It’s certainly very red, marring the column’s perfect paleness.
He doesn’t argue with me.
I glance from him to Gabe, who has gone almost as pale as the fae boy.
“Did he glamor you?” I ask.
Gabe shakes his head. “The thing in my arm,” he whispers.
Then he really has no excuse at all.
