Except it hadn’t even been a week.
And already he felt like he was unraveling.
She hasn’t even reached out.
That part stung. Maybe more than anything else.
He’d expected guilt. Fear. A message.Anything.
But there’d been silence.
Because she didn’t care.
None of them did.
Riven closed his eyes and dragged a hand down his face.
His mother had vanished when he was six. His aunt, who’d raised them, treated him like an obligation and his sister like agolden ticket. The only person who’d ever really tried to protect him was his father, and the man had worked himself to death doing it.
He could still remember the hospital room. The way his father had tried to smile, even as the heart monitor beeped slower and slower. He’d died in debt. Diedterrifiedof what would happen to his children if they couldn’t pay.
And now here Riven was, doing the same damn thing. Destroying himself for someone who wouldn’t do the same for him.
He turned his face toward the slanted roof tile, and his eyes stung.
You’re so fucking pathetic.
But that voice—the one that usually lived in his gut—wasn’t alone tonight.
There was another one. Just as unwelcome.
Thane has protected you.
He scowled.
That wasn’t the same. That wasn’t—
Except itwas, wasn’t it?
Thane had killed for him. Had gotten in the way of bullets and Soulglass-maddened monsters. Had stepped in when the Matriarch tried to break him in front of the whole table. Had made sure he wasn’t alone after the sniper attack. Had taken his mouth like heownedit—but never once forced him.
Protected him like—
No.
Riven sat up sharply, every muscle coiled tight.
No.
He wouldn’t go there. He wouldn’t start thinking Thane Virellien was anything close to a protector, asavior. The man had only gotten involved because Riven was now Virellien property. A prized tool that needed to be kept in working order.
Thane wasn’t kind, he wasn’t soft. He was a knife, and knives didn’t save you. They sliced you open.
Riven let out a low, bitter laugh. His breath fogged in the cool air.
One year.
He just had to remember that. One year of playing their game. Of being the Matriarch’s tool and Thane’s pawn and whatever the hell else they wanted him to be. Then he could walk away.
