A noise of derision slips out of me. “Don’t have to worry? All there is to do is worry. I can’t stay, Rip.”
For the first time since he came in this tent, a flash of emotion crosses his face. Anger, dark and quick, thickens over his brow. “Why not?”
I press a hand to my forehead, trying to quell my thundering thoughts. “Because.”
He shakes his head, jaw tight. “Not good enough. Give me a real answer.”
“I don’t even know what you’re offering. To hide me? To make me disappear? I can’t do that to Midas.”
If I thought he was angry before, it’snothingto the anger that brews now. It’s palpable, thickening in the air like a storm building to rage.
“Midas.” The word is spit from his mouth like a curse, something to detest. “What about those things you said on the beach? You’re just going to let him keep you again like a bird in a cage?”
“No,” I say with a resolute shake of my head. “Things are going to be different now.I’mdifferent now. I meant what I said.”
Rip scoffs. The sound is ugly, distrustful. “If you think for a second that things will be different, then you’re a fool.”
My hands ball into fists at my sides. “I’mnota fool.”
“He keeps you like a pet. Uses you. Manipulates you. Takes advantage of whatever twisted love you think you have for him.”
He flings the accusations at me like a dagger, meant to pierce me.
“He kept me safe.”
“Safe.” He growls it like he’s a wolf who’d like to devour it whole. “Always the same damn argument. Yes, how magnanimous of him to lock you behind bars all day and call you his favored whore.”
I flinch from the slap of his words, a hit that makes anger and hurt blaze in my cheeks.
“You can think what you want, butno oneelse ever did that much,” I say, and I hate that my throat squeezes with emotion, hate that I can’t stay as emotionless as him.
“I wilted in the streets, starving, abused, hated. You think he uses me? It’snothingcompared to what I’ve endured at the hand of others.”
Rip goes lethally still. Fury radiates off of him and lifts the hairs on the back of my neck.
“What’s wrong?” I taunt. “Don’t like to hear that a fellow fae didn’t rise up in this world like you? So sorry that I didn’t sell myself to King Rot instead. Maybe if I had, I’d be commanding this army, and you’d be in Midas’s cage for people to gawk at and prod at your spikes.”
Those spikes stretch and tighten, like they’re imagining it—him being trapped behind bars.
“Stop being complacent. Stop being okay with being a pet in a cage.”
My lips pull back into a snarl. “Go to hell!”
He shakes his head. “No, Auren. You’re the one that needs to burn. You need to spark to life andfight. Stop letting him dull you, stop letting the whole fucking world trample you,” he shouts, making me flinch from the vehement demand. “If you tried, you could shine brighter than the fucking sun. Instead, you’ve chosen to sit back and wither.”
An angry tear floods past my eye and drips down my chin. “You want me to run like a coward, but I’m not afraid of him. Despite what you think, he loves me and he’ll listen to me,” I say, dashing the evidence of my hurt off my face. “Why are you even doing this? Why do you care?” I demand.
But what I’m really asking is,what did your kiss mean? What does any of this push and pull between us mean?
A tic appears in his jaw, like he’s biting his words, deciding which ones to swallow down. “Everyone deserves a choice. I’m offering you one.”
“I can’t leave theone personwho has ever protected me.”
He makes a growled sound and runs a hand through his thick black hair, pulling it at the roots, revealing his frustration. “Look, we do what we have to in order to survive. I’m not judging you for it.”
I let out a humorless laugh. The air is lightening even more, a dread dawn ready to crest. “That’s all you’ve done since I met you. You’ve judged me for every decision I’ve made to hide myself, to survive. Don’t pretend otherwise.”
“Fine,” he says, dropping his hand. “But you don’t have to hide, not anymore.”
