“I wasn’tfuckinghim—I was talking to him.”
“Don’t talk, don’t look, don’t think about people who aren’t the Reaper.”
I put a freshly manicured finger to my temple and stared directly at Lock, licking my bottom lip, before sliding my gaze back to Grim.
“What happens if I break them? Gonna kill someone else? Me?”
“Yes,” Wraith growled from behind Raze and Lock, his tattooed face obscured half in shadows. “We know all about your games. The monsters you court for attention. The death you put on Grim’s hand.”
As Wraith continued, I glanced at Grim, uncertainty wrinkling my brow.
They knew?
“Any man who touches you,” Wraith said, stepping between Lock and Raze into the room, “monster or not, we will kill. We will all kill for you.”
Wraith had the same tone in his voice as Grim held in his eyes. Not bitter or angry, but resolved. A man at the gallows.
It made my chest tighten.
It felt different, like it wasn’t a game anymore.
“Well.” I shrugged. “You’re going to be killing a lot of people.”
“Maybe,” Raze said.
“Definitely,” Lock added.
They laughed like this was just a regular day. As if they hadn’t kidnapped the most famous girl in America, as if it was normal for that girl to lure monsters to their death.
The game had ended. That nice buffer between us and reality crumbled.
So I searched for something, anything, to build that defense back up.
“Five years ago you stole my life and promised to kill me,” I said, attention on Grim. “If you won’t do it willingly, I’llmakeyou.”
Grim laughed. “Good luck with that.”
“You don’t believe me?”
He arched a brow. “I believe you’ll try.”
“We won’t let you die, princess,” Lock said.
Wraith stared. “We’re your monsters now.”
Oh, wow, there it was. Fear. In the five years I’d been under Grim’s thumb, I’d never felt it. I was starting to think I was immune. But you could always count on fear. It was your emotional period, coming at the worst possible time, in the worst possible place, and likely involved a boy. Or in this case, four.
The Horsemen shared a knowing look with Grim, and then they left, shutting the door as they did. The room transformed. The air heady and thick. Grim leaned against the opposite wall, one leg propped up. His pose gave an illusion of calm, easily shattered by the tension threading his neck, the ravenous glare in his eyes.
Everything I’d done landed on me at once. It was always a game between Grim and me. We pushed to see who would crack first.
There was no game in his eyes.
“Say something,” I demanded.
“You have that look in your eyes,” he said, dragging a hand over his mouth.
“What look?”
