He takes a long drag, the crackle of tobacco joining the sound of wind and the trees swaying behind the hospital. The sky looks ready to rain, and in all that gray, Talon’s hair seems almost alive.
He doesn’t fit here. Or maybe it’s that everything I know about him doesn’t fit? What I do know is dull and brutal.
But he looks like the kind of guy you’d try weed with for the first time. The kind you’d tell your secrets to in some half-empty bar off a forgotten highway, just because you both happened to end up there.
That version clashes with the brooding man in front of me.
“You’re not subtle, you know,” I say, stopping a few steps above him. “Storming off like that. Laughing like you’re about to lose your mind. Hitting Nathaniel—”
“He deserved it,” Talon mutters.
“Yeah? For what?”
His lips twitch like he might smirk, but it doesn’t stick. “For saying out loud what I didn’t need to hear.”
“And that was…?”
Whatever my words do to him, it’s sudden and sharp. The cigarette stills halfway to his mouth, suspended there as he turns around like a whirlwind and looks me in the eye. His eyes are blazing. There’s no trace of that usual, cocky gleam I’m used to.
It’s raw. Unfiltered. Like I’ve pried open something he’s spent years nailing shut.
“That you’re not here for us,” he says.
I blink. “What?”
“You heard me.” His voice is low, but not quiet. Not restrained. “Nathaniel said you’re not the problem, and I wanted to believe him. But then you stand there, tell us there are more wraiths, and I realize—” He cuts himself off, teeth grinding.
“Realize what?”
He exhales, rough. “That you’re only still here because the job isn’t done. That when it is, you’ll either walk away or… you won’t walk away at all.” His jaw flexes. He looks past me, as if saying it to the air might hurt less. “Either way, you’re gone.”
Something catches in my chest.
“That’s not—” I start, but one look from him shuts me up.
“Don’t.” He shakes his head, sharp. “You don’t have to lie to me, Skye. I know I fucked up when I got all bitchy about you sleeping with Cassian, but… fuck. You make me lose my goddamn mind.”
The cigarette burns to the filter, forgotten.
I don’t know what to say.
Is this really the Talon I know?
I swallow and step closer. His fingers loosen; the cigarette drops to the concrete. Goosebumps ripple across his bare forearms. The little hairs stand on end.
Am I doing this to him? Am I affecting him enough for his body to betray it?
“I didn’t think you cared whether I stayed or not,” I admit.
It all replays in my head. The way he always wanted to touch me back when I couldn’t be touched. How light it felt with him compared to the dark weight of my past. I knew why it was so easy. Because it didn’t mean much. There was nothing at stake. Just raw attraction.
And then, somewhere along the way, Talon stopped being easy. He became this tangle of contradictions I can’t pin down—still charming, still a smartass, but now… edgy. Jealous. Keeping score. And now, this.
“I didn’t,” he says at last, quieter. “Not at first. You were just… you know. A wild card. Something to poke at.” His mouth quirks. “Then you started doing all these things no one asked you to do. Saving Cassian’s life, sticking around after we fucked up, andyou even chose me to be the one to take your new virginity, and—”
“Okay, you know what?” I cut him off. “That was situational, and you know it. It’s not like I got this body with a new hymen or anything.”
That earns a huff of laughter.
