I sigh, leaning into Riven and laying my head against his chest. It’s over. It’sfinallyover. Riven stiffens, and I’m immediately on high alert once again, pulling away from hischest to look up at his face. Before I can ask him what’s wrong, I hear a voice. Hisfather’svoice.
I turn, staring at Riven’s father in the doorway. He’s leaning against the frame with his hands in his pockets, assessing the mess that I made on the floor. Riven tightens his hold on me, placing me behind him in protection. I wrap my arms around his muscular frame, peeking around him to watch his father.
I hear his father chuckle. “Who do I have to thank for thisinconvenience?” he asks, looking up from Sabel and the pool of blood to trail his eyes over all of us in the room.
“My bet’s on you, son.” His eyes snap to Riven. I instinctively want to punch his father in the throat for assuming it was him.
“What does it matter. She’s gone. You’re welcome,” Riven says, his deep voice vibrating against my chest.
His father chuckles again, and then darts into the room, clearly going for the gun that’s laying haphazardly on the floor closest to the door.
“Cal,” Riven growls.
Callum gets to Riven’s father quickly, tackling him to the ground with ease. Riven’s father reaches out and grazes the gun with the tips of his fingers, grunting. Callum reaches over and grabs the gun from his reach, pointing it down at him.
“Don’t fucking move,” Callum grumbles.
Riven’s father raises both of his hands in surrender, but never loses the smirk on his face. What a pretentious asshole.
“That’s enough. Restrain him. We need to keep him alive for questioning,” Riven rumbles against me.
Callum nods, pocketing the gun and pulling Riven’s father to his feet. Callum brings him over to the same chair I was restrained in and secures him to it. I move from my place behind Riven and stand beside him, grabbing his hand and intertwining my fingers with his. Riven looks down at our connected hands, a stunned expression on his face. Once he returns his attention tomy face, I have a huge, giddy smile. It quickly fades, though, as I assess the room and face the music of what I’ve done, whatwe’vedone.
Riven brings our connected hands up to his lips, placing a soft kiss on the back of my hand. “Hey, shhhh. Look at me, darling.” I tear my eyes away from Sabel’s lifeless body to meet Riven’s gaze.
“Good,” he praises. “It’s going to be okay, Sloane. We’ll figure this outtogether.” I nod, comforted by his soothing voice and by the way he’s looking at me like he’d do it all again if he had to, if it meant keeping me by his side. I lean my head against his arm, letting out a long sigh. It has been onehellof a day.
? ? ?
Riven and I are back at his house now, tangled up together on the sofa after hours of him inside of me. He made me come, begging me to say those three little words to him over and over again.After that, we bathed together in his large tub and have been lying here in our bubble of solitude ever since.
I love you, Sloane.His words echo in my mind on a constant, repetitive loop. I heard his words,allof them. I fought like hell the entire time to try and resist the frequency. It was sodamnhard, but his final words were the key to stopping all of it. I don’t know how he knew it would work, or if he even did, but I’m more than grateful that it was successful.
It was as if I were a backseat passenger to my own body. I was able to hear and see, but unable to communicate with my thoughts. The binaural mind control was able to replace my thoughts with new ones, ones suggested by Sabel and Sonus Corp. Once the Eden Frequency was activated by Somnius, the control grew heavier. It felt like I was standing in thick mud, unable to move a single limb. I felt the new thoughts taking overall of my old ones, little by little. The Eden Frequency activated something else, though. I alsosaw.
I saw everything. I was overcome with memories flashing through my mind that were not my own. The memories were for Riven,ofRiven. I saw flickers of him as a young boy, all dark black hair and bony, long limbs. I saw his mother, and how kind she was to him. I told him about seeing her, and he confirmed that she passed away several years ago due to cancer. My heart breaks for him now, and for that little boy whom I saw in my mind. I also saw his father, and the way he used to abuse Riven both physically and emotionally. The look in Riven’s eyes when I told him that I knew was both haunting and exulting.
After that, the memories sped up, warped by time. I saw him in college, studying for his master’s in psychology. I saw him take the stage on graduation day as valedictorian. It didn’t shock me.His mind is one of my favorite things about him, no matter how dark and depraved it might be. I saw when he joined a garage band with the same guys I saw in the torture room today. When I explained that part, he confirmed that they are all a part of Reverb with him. He told me that Raithe is his little brother, explaining the similarities I noticed in their appearances. He told me all about Malakai, who mostly goes by Kai, and apologized for having Callum pretend to work for a security company.
It was the next set of memories that I’ve yet to talk to him about. The ones where I saw him murderingmultiplepeople. The ones where I saw him drop the same earpiece that I saw in my father’s case file folder that day in Alex’s office. The ones where I saw him walk away from my father’s lifeless body. I haven’t spoken of the ones where Riven saw me through his stage mask. I could feel the constant war waging in his mind at wanting to tell me who he was, but not knowing if I would run once I knew. It makes me sad, because Iwouldn’thave.
I saw several of Riven’s memories, but the main thing that I saw washim.
Riven is so beautifully broken, so undeniably himself. I should be running in the opposite direction, but our shadows call to one another in the darkness. I crave the chaos he was forged in, the torment that clings to him like smoke. I ache to unravel all of that deeply rooted darkness and intertwine it with my own.
I was partially wrong in saying that he didn’t save me. He saved me from my father. He didn’t have to say the words for me to understand my father’s ultimate plans for me. I’d heard whispers of my father during phone calls that were meant to be private. I hid in dark corners while my motherbeggedhim not to do it. I knew it all along. I turned away from the truth, hoping that somehow I was wrong. Hoping that maybe my father would change his mind when the time came. But in my heart, I knew that my father was going to sell me to the highest bidder. So, yes, Riven didsaveme as much as he saw me.
? ? ?
I run lazy circles over Riven’s sculpted chest, drinking up the smell of sage, mint, and citrus. I don’t know how in the hell I couldn’t match the scent to the one I smelled at my father’s crime scene that day months ago.
“You didn’t want to see the truth.”The angel has returned. She’s more smiley and less judgmental than she previously was. I nod, knowing how right she is.
“She saw the truth, but she compartmentalized it until she was ready to accept it,”the devil says, smirking from the opposite shoulder. I chuckle out loud.
“What’s so funny, darling?” Riven asks, brushing a hand carelessly down my arm.
“I was giggling at my internal monologue,” I say truthfully. He places a finger underneath my chin and lifts until our eyes meet. There’s a skeptical look on his face, and he has a singular eyebrow raised.
