Chapter 2
The clay pot shattered against the wall, and the ringing in my ears intensified, setting off another pounding throb in my head.
Rhodes threw his hands up, dodging just in time. “Hey, hey! It’s me!”
I knew it was him. And as much as I wanted to collapse into his arms and pretend that everything was okay, I couldn’t let him see me like this—weak, messy, and undeniably insecure.
I grabbed another clay piece from the end table, lifting it behind my head. Rhodes’s eyes narrowed, and suddenly its weight seemed to triple. With a frustrated grunt, I set it back down. “Get out,” I snarled.
Hurt and confusion flashed across his face, but he raised his hands in surrender, stepping carefully over shards of clay. “Scarlet,” he said steadily, “just breathe. You’ve been through a lot. Lakota already told Noemi who was working as the Grim.”
“Don’t come any closer,” I choked out. I turned my head to hide the tears threatening to spill.
“There’s no way I’m leaving you right now.”
Crunch.
“I want to be alone.”
Crunch.
“Something tells me that’s really the last thing you want.”
Fire seared up the back of my neck, scorching into the base of my skull. I winced, struggling to mask the pain. “You don’t know what I want,” I whispered through gritted teeth.
The soft crinkle of leather told me Rhodes had knelt before me, though he didn’t reach out to touch.
“I beg to differ,” he murmured, his tone edged with a hint of humor, as if he were trying to coax a smile from me, knowing that’s exactly what I needed.
I needed an uninterrupted moment of peace. I needed a full breath of air. I needed light.
I needed Laney.
A sob caught in my throat, and I turned to face him. His beautiful, stormy eyes, filled with worry, rested on someone who didn’t deserve his energy. He clenched his jaw tight, and the hair on top of his head had grown long enough to fall over one eye. He wasn’t in his usual Mageia leathers. These had more… pockets, sheaths, and a belt built to carry multiple weapons.
His gaze softened as he dipped his chin.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to hear that right now.”
“Hear what?”
“Anything,” I whispered.
He paused, chest rising and falling as he tried to read whether I was joking or serious. Lakota might’ve been the one to talk me off the ledge that day, but it was Rhodes who helped me piece myself back together afterward.
Rhodes was the only one who’s seen me truly let go. He knows the parts of myself I’ve buried away from the world. Piece by piece, he glued my joy back together. He didn’t bother trying to cover up the scars… he left them proudly on display.
But another piece of me shattered, and I’m back where I belong.
Rock Bottom.
Rhodes sees the best in me, but my worst overshadows it. And I know he’ll never believe that. He’ll keep pushing me to fight, to stand tall. He’ll pick me up every time I fall. But he’ll never accept the truth.
I’m a lost cause.
So, I tried to relieve him of the burden of having me in his life, and I forced him out.
“I don’t want to see you, Wylder. I don’t know why you’ve wasted time sitting by my bedside, but I can assure you, it was all for nothing. I don’t feel the way about you that you probably feel about me. There’snothingbetween us. Now please leave me alone.” The words felt like acid, burning my tongue. My heart pounded, knowing that he was the reason I’d awakened at all.
