Kharon leaned close to my personal space.
I narrowed my eyes and craned my neck back to look at him. “It wasn’t like that,” I said. “I just... hit him once. With the chair. It was more of a tap. A light bop.”
“And then, to add insult to injury,” Kharon continued like I hadn’t spoken, “she puked on the passed-out, fallen boy, to assert her dominance over him.”
Oh . . . that’s not good.
Patro’s jaw dropped.
“Uhm.” I winced and raised my finger. “That’s n-not what happened.”
Kharon moved faster than my eye could track—he was millimeters away. His body heat burned, and a curious sensation twisted low in my stomach.
“Did you not puke on him?” he asked mockingly, the deep baritone of his voice scratching across my ears.
Fire smoldered inside my gut, and strange sensations made me weak.
“It was an accident.” I shrugged casually. “The puke.”
Just a girl with a weak stomach, nothing to see here.
A pale hand reached toward my face.
Flinching, I closed my eyes and waited for the blow.
Long, burning-hot fingers grabbed the back of my neck in a vise. Goosebumps exploded down my spine. My knees shook.
Okay, 0 percent chance I steal a button.
Nothing happened.
Great, he’s going to prolong my death and make it weird.
I squinted up. Glacier-blue eyes stared down with an unreadable expression, cut jaw clenching.
“On the count of five,” Kharon said quietly.
What?
“One,” he said, voice cold and raspy. There was a long pause as he looked at me expectantly.
Ohmygod, does he want me to count until he kills me? Who does that?
“Uh, two?” I said.
Yes, I was voluntarily participating in my own murder. No, I didn’t want to talk about it.
I flinched and whispered, “Three.”
Kharon grabbed my broken nose. White-hot agony exploded, and he reset the bone back into place. Violently.
I yelped and tipped my head back, tears streaming, face on fire. Groaning and clutching at my abused appendage, I shuffled backward and knocked into the table.
Patro yelled something.
Tripping, I face-planted toward the?—
Kharon grabbed my shoulders and stopped my descent.
