“No, you will not,” I snap.
“How are you even walking?”
I pretend not to hear him with a sigh, “Ignore the bruises.” I tug my shirt down, biting down on my lip, “I think… the bullet might still be in my leg.” Reuben doesn’t move and for a moment, I’m not sure if he heard me.
“The what?” His voice is frighteningly quiet as I raise the pants of my leg.
“On the dock,” I mumble softly. “They shot me. I haven’t had time to treat it.”
“You went six hours,” I can feel the anger in his gaze without meeting it, “with a bullet in your leg… and you told no one.”
“… I think it hit a nerve?” Or two? “It’s been numb the whole time so I can’t really tell.”
“Youjustpromised me nothing reckless.”
“This doesn’t count,” I scowl, “I didn’t have time—”
“I’m going to kill you.”
My mouth snaps shut. “That—that goes against you bandaging me up.”
“I willcontinueto bandage you up,” he promises darkly, “and then I will kill you.”
“I can get it out,” Gabriel steps up and our attention snaps towards him, butour last words are still in the air between us. It winds the tension just a bit too tightly again.
I turn my head away, mumbling, “I don’t trust you poking around in my leg for a bullet.”
“Well, either we do it now, or the doc will have to tear your skin open again to get to it.”
I… I don’t think I like the sound of that. I’m tired of pain.
Gabriel is quiet as he works to get the bullet out and Reuben gives me a knowing look, before leaving us to ourselves, trailing back to Baal’s side.
He breaks the silence, only when the bullet is removed, bandaging my leg with a grim expression, “What I said to you… I didn’t mean it that way.”
There are so only so many ways you could’ve meant it, asshole.
“I just meant… you’re strong. On the Millenium Star. With Olsen. Even back there in the port, you handed us our asses. If you didn’t want to be here, you would’ve died a long time ago. So as much as it hurts you…” his gaze meets mine squarely, “I don’t think you actually want to join your dead, traitor-killer.”
I blink because it’s not what I expected. Because I can see the sincerity in his eyes.
“I’m already dead, Gabriel.” The words escape from a strange part of me. “In reality, I’ve been clinging to a corpse, trying to give it a purpose. Xavier was right.” I look away, voice softening a bit more than I intended, “Reuben… distracted me.”
“For a corpse, you have a lot of feelings.”
My mouth snaps shut and Gabriel raises a brow, “You had a soft spot for Evelyn. You had a soft spot for Lucia. You bonded with Kai. You saved Xavier. And Reuben… brings you back to life.”
Stop it.
“You’re not a dead man.”
That’s because… you don’t understand.
“It’s Aster,” Aster’s voice sounds through the speaker suddenly—cutting ourconversation short—and the tension returns so sharply, everyone holds their breaths.
“We’ve shut down the Harvester. I’m sending a boat to Jacques Harbour to bring you here. Be there in fifteen.”
Baal’s shoulders slump with relief as he replies, “Got it. I’m sending Reuben.” He turns back to Reuben with a grim expression, “I’ll head back to the house and alert Father.”
