She does it well.
“What’s your name?” I finally ask as my palm slips over the cold metal door handle.
She continues to scan her papers. Seconds pass as if she didn’t hear me at all.
And then, “Isabella,” she says surprisingly.
A few men snort with covered laughter, like her pretty name and her pretty face are amusing to them.
But I do see the way Sev hasn’t looked away from her since the moment she told him to get his cock out of his ass.
The tension in the place, I swear.
They’re just as fucked as I remember.
* * *
I’m quiet as my fingers roam over the carved roses along the glossy banister. The incubus behind me whistles a tune like he doesn’t have one fuck to spare in this world. I roll my eyes at him, and he just shrugs and keeps on with his flawless haunting melody.
I step up to the soft red rug on the second floor, and I peer to the left and then the right.
And there, hunched down on the floor, sits a demon. His big hands are thrown over his knees, and he looks so beaten down and defeated that my heart crumbles in my chest.
Anger flares up within me.
I swallow hard and go right to him.
The man who’s been my shadow through all of this stays put, settling his lean frame against the wall as he watches me walk away.
My gown bunches around my legs as I fall with a quiet thud in front of Ryke. His head wobbles a little when he looks up at me from beneath his thick dark lashes. He smiles, but he winces when the pressure of it touches his eye that’s swollen shut.
A deep split splices his lower lip so deeply, it cuts into me just looking at him.
Those fucking men who hurt him.
They’ll pay. The guards. My father. All of them signed their death warrant the moment they laid hands on this sweet, sweet man.
“Hey, Crow,” he says with a coughing laugh. His head sinks down as he shakes from the pain I know he’s holding back from me.
His warmth is overwhelming as I take his big hand in both of mine. He comes closer, and I lean into him as he rests his head against my shoulder.
“I’m so fucking sorry, Ryke. I tried to tell them. I tried—”
“Shhhh,” he whispers, sliding his free hand along my arm and sinking it through my thick silver hair. “I’m fine. Don’t think about that right now. Just be here with me for a little while. Please. Please stay here with me. Please, baby.” His voice cracks, and my heart cracks right along with it.
What did they do to him in the dungeon? What happened after they took him away from me?
“I’m here.” My words catch, and the tremble in my chest is a deeper feeling. It’s something that isn’t in my lungs or my flesh.
It’s in my soul itself.
His hold on my hair tightens, and I love the sting of it even as he lifts my head up to him. His deep green eyes peer down on me from beneath the violence that’s been done to his face.
And then his lips ghost over mine.
“Aries,” he whispers against my lips.
My eyes close.
