Thanks to my begging him, he helped me get through that horribly debilitating heat—the first one I've ever had to go through without suppressants. I never even saw his face, thanks to the blindfold the liches kept on me pretty much the entire time, but Jessica swears he was gorgeous.
His English was broken and difficult to understand, but I got his emotions toward me loud and clear. I've never met someone so completely fascinated by me before.
And that fascination quickly became…fixation.
After that heat, the half-demon was beaten for bringing me clean water and any food he possibly could whenever he could sneak out of the arena. He's a big reason I survived that nightmare, but I know from an offhand comment Felix once made that most of the Entity's arena fighters died while being forced to fight on his side during the Battle of the Citadel.
My golden-hearted half-demon was probably one of them.
That thought alone makes my heart clench. I look away from my drunk ex, trying to ignore my inner animal's mounting restlessness while I drown in his feelings and my own haunted past.
"We're not together anymore, Ryan. We'll never be together again. I don't owe you anything, and you don't owe me anything, so for the last time, please just leave me al?—"
I don't get to finish as Ryan swears angrily, bends down, grabs one of the rocks lining my driveway, and slams it into the bottom corner of the driver's side window. I cry out as glass shatters into tiny pieces, skating across my skin and creating small cuts. They begin healing immediately, but my pulse deafens my ears, and my inner animal goes berserk.
Not safe. Run.
"Thisjackass!”Jessica shouts, trying helplessly to shove Ryan away as he reaches through the shattered window for me. "Damn it,whydo I have to be a stupid disembodied ghost right now? Get this jackass off of you, El! Slam your door into his nutsack!"
But Ryan's gripping my sleeved shoulderhard, shaking me roughly as he screams into my left ear until it's ringing.
"Shut the fuck up about usnot together!What even is that? We're still together! I decide when we're done, got it?"
Just like when I was a child, my immediate instinct is to shut down when someone starts screaming at me. Ryan's fury has turned violent. He's not thinking clearly, and I'm far too close to shifting or passing out from his emotions flooding my airways and crushing my lungs.
My inner animal scrambles in terror.
Run, run, run, run?—
"Let me go," I finally manage in a shaky voice as more hot moisture blurs my eyes, rolling down my cheeks.
His hot, alcohol-laced breath fans my face, his head now through the shattered window, too. "You don't get to fucking end this, Elise! You think your fat ass gets to be the one to call it? I could be with anyone, but I decided I want you! I can't believe you're just giving up on?—"
I'm going to shift.
I'm going to puke.
Oh my gods, I can'tbreathe.
I do the first thing I manage to think of and grab his arm with my bare hand.
"I said,let me go!"
The instant his skin meets mine, all of my pain, fear, and anxiety combine with his out-of-control emotions. It all crashes into Ryan, multiplying and fragmenting into a symphony of perfect agony. He yelps in surprise and stumbles away from my car, falling on his butt next to the thick trees surrounding my house.
Run. Hide. Get away,the gentle creature inside me begs.
I still can't make myself move, though.
"Yes! Good. Now drive. El,drive,"Jessica urges.
She finally gets through the electrifying haze that's turning my brain into mush. I hit the gas and peel out of my circular driveway, taking off down the rural back road.
3
HEIDI
Several minutes later,I park off the route to one of my favorite hiking areas in the woods surrounding Koasville. Covering my face, I try to calm down.
