The last obstacle—the single hanging rope to climb to get to the end platform—is probably the toughest. The rope is smooth nylon rather than the rough, braided rope making up the rest of the obstacles, and it has no knots for me to hold to with my feet. I wipe my sweaty palms on my shirt and grip the end of it. My upper body strength is enough to support my own weight through twenty or thirty pullups, but my muscles are already burning with exhaustion. I’mdefinitelygoing to be sore tomorrow.
I manage to put one hand above the other until I can get a toe on the last platform. Then, I get on it fully, and use the comfortable final ladder to get back onto the ground.
“Shit,” Max breathes. “That was… really fucking hot.”
I turn to face him, fury turning my vision red. “I’m sure Scarlett looked just as good doing it.”
Max pauses in his reps, lowering his weights to the ground to face me. “What?”
“Why would you bring me here?” I demand. “If you already hadher, why would you do this tome?Every day I’m here endangers the only good thing in my life, and you already have someone to fixate on. Why thefuckwould you upend the last five years of your life just tohave me here, Max? Is this all anegothing? You can’t get Scarlett, so you focus on a different one that got away?”
“Hold on, what the fuck are you talking about?” he demands. He crosses the gym until he’s only a few feet away from me, brows drawn and posture tense.
“I’m talking about Scarlett!” I repeat, louder. “I’m talking about how you’ve ruinedeverythingfor me!” My voice continues to rise in pitch. “When you were insisting that we knew and cared for each other in our youths, that was fine. Butnow?When I’m just the second-place award? What thefuck!”
“Ember, I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about. I have no designs on Scarlett—”
“Really?” I release an angry laugh. “Because, according to her, you wanted to take her away from Greyson when you saw trouble in paradise.”
Max blinks. “Holy fuck, you’rejealous.”
“I’m not jealous!” I shout. “I’m feelingdisrespected!”
“Unless that’s a synonym for jealous, you’re lying.”
“Go fuck yourself!”
“Ember.” Max takes a step forward. “Scarlett is myfriend, and that’s all. I care about her the way I would care about any of my friends, including Greyson. I don’t know what gave you the impression that I have any interest in her—”
“I don’t know, maybe the fact that you yelled at me for upsetting her? That you jumped to her defense?”
“You were being a bitch, and we both know it. I set you straight because, again, I fuckingcareabout Scarlett—”
“It sounds like you care about hertoo much.” I pant angrily. “You need to let me go.”
His face goes blank. “Absolutely not.”
“That wasn’t a fucking question! Youneedto let me go.”
“You need to tell me why you’re so eager to get back to Dagon,” he counters.
I let out a groan of sheer fury. “You were always like this! Acting first, thinking later!”
Max goes perfectly still, at the same time I do. My brows slam down. Where the hell didthatcome from? I don’t remember Max—at least, not consciously.
But little snippets arise in my mind. Emotion-based memories of fights that might’ve been with him, over his impulse control, which has clearly seen no improvement.
What the hell is happening to me?I feel like I’m losing my mind.
“Repeat that,” Max says, suddenly quiet.
I shake my head. “I don’t know where that came from—”
“You do.” He crosses the distance between us, gripping my arms in his hands. “Say it again, Ember.”
“Stop telling me what I do and don’t know!” I yell. “You’re fucking with my head!”
“No, Flame. I’m fixing it. Have you had any more memories?”
