“Are you sure you can’t hear us now?” Zeek asks cautiously, finally looking back at her.
Red rolls onto her back. “Mmhmm.”
That isnota yes.
“This is psychological warfare,” Julien says, smiling slightly.
“Restrain yourselves,” Zeek mutters into our minds, testing Red’s words.
She hums softly, rolling her head to him. “But you’re so bad at that,my lord.”
His jaw twitches.
And then it starts again.
But this time, I can’t even try to hold my thoughts back, because my darkness surges, staring straight at her, imagining crawling up the bed, over her body, shadows slithering all over, wrapping around her wrists, pinning them above her head…
“Pure thoughts, Sai,” she says with a devilish smirk, and I swear there’s a flash of darkness in her gaze.
“Not a chance, baby.” I grin right back, voice gritty with the dark, realising my fingers have curled into the mattress.
“I had an inkling,” Kane suddenly says, fracturing the haze and staring at Red with pure… admiration. “At the meeting.”
“You never said,” Red murmurs softly, brows furrowing.
He steps closer, but doesn’t sit, forcing Red to tilt her head up to hold his gaze.
“It was only an inkling. You were already looking at Ezekial before we said aloud that he would stay,” he explains. “And I thought you deserved to hear us. To make up for all the private conversations we’d had around you. All the secrets we kept. You deserved this.”
“All this time, you thought I could hear you, and you never said a word?”
Kane nods once.
Red looks at him like she truly sees him, like she understands what keeping this from us means. He gave her control, allowed her to truly see us. Trusted her.
For a moment, she’s quiet, and when she speaks again, it’s not aloud but inside our heads.
“I’m staying,”she states, her voice sliding into my mind with that soft, soothing sensation.
All my nerves ease and all our darknesses still, content to listen, even the hairs on my neck stand to attention.
“I’ve heard your thoughts, your desires, your insecurities. Seen your loyalty.”She lets the silence build beautifully.“You kept your promise. You haven’t lied to me, and…”Her voice gentles, brushing against all our hidden, vulnerable places.“It’s only made me want you more.”
Her words… They’re everything I’ve dreamed.
None of us move for a moment, terrified we’ll break whatever this is, this moment. But this is real.
It’s Red who restarts time. “So, now you know I’m staying… the barrier?”
Zeek nods. “Now there’s no threat from this district—”
“From what we know…” Kane mutters, his cynicism always adding a nice spice to the mix.
Zeek gives him a pointed look before continuing. “I’ll reach out to Delphine. She’ll organise a meeting between the other districts.” He’s already pulling out his tablet: swiping, tapping, doing all that serious shit. “After they’re informed, there’ll need to be a cooling-down period, and then…”
He doesn’t finish, but we know. Then, the barrier drops.
That’ll be the real test.
