I exhale. "Oh, many times. Believe me. Sleeping outside, freezing, scared out of my mind, I wanted to crawl back more than once. But then I remembered that dinner. The pit in my stomach. The way my life shrank in front of my eyes and I knew I'd be living dead if I went back. At least on the streets, I felt alive. Even if I might die of pneumonia. Or by some stranger's knife."
My voice softens, almost against my will. "So my club friends put me in touch with others—people in the trenches. A radical group. They had barracks, shelter, purpose. They struckat oil companies, sabotaged pipelines, hacked rigs. I loved how unapologetic they were. It felt like making a real impact, not just throwing money at charities that bled it all away into middlemen's pockets."
I pause, the old fire stirring in my chest. "I loved raging against the machine. Tearing down everything I grew up with. It felt like freedom. It felt like change. Even if, in the end, not much of it was true."
A bitter smile curls at my lips. "Still… when they asked me to stay, to become one of them, I said yes. That's when Sabrina died and I became Sage. I shed the old skin, the old name. I wanted to be closer to nature even in what I was called, since she was my mother then." My laugh is low, humorless. "Funny, isn't it? That now, as a nymph, that's literal."
"So that's why you sabotaged those construction vehicles? How you ended up in that forest when you were turned?" Asher asks.
"Yes, but that was later." I take a breath. "First, I was running with those radicals. Getting into trouble. Sometimes too deep. We got arrested once, and of course my parents caught wind of it. They came to see me."
My voice falters. The memory still claws.
"I thought…" My throat tightens. "I thought they finally cared. That, maybe, they missed me. That they wanted me back. I even had this little speech prepared—my conditions, what I'd accept if I returned. But they had their own conditions."
Kayden's jaw tightens, waiting.
"They offered to bail me out… if I agreed to marry. A new man, the same type of cage. And if I didn't—"
"If you didn't?" Kayden growls, his voice rough with anger that's not aimed at me.
"If I didn't, they'd disown me." The words come out sharp, pitched too high. "I wasn't prepared. I thought I'd always betheir daughter, even if I ran. But they had the papers already. And I said—'then disown me.'" My hands curl into fists. "And they did. Right there. They signed me off like I was nothing. Then they just… left."
My voice breaks.
Before I can fall apart, Asher and Kayden close in, one on each side, pulling me into their arms. I melt into the warmth of them, the solidity, the steady beat of two hearts that chose me when the people who made me didn't.
"Now you have us, Sage," Asher says quietly, fierce in his calm.
Kayden presses his cheek to my hair. "We might be assholes sometimes—"
"Some more than others," Asher cuts in, deadpan.
Kayden huffs. "But we're yours. And you're ours."
I pull back just enough to see them both. My chest is tight, my eyes burning, but what I feel most is need. Them pulling me into a place where everything else—the family, the past, the banshee's words, nature's ache—melts away.
"Then show me," I whisper.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Sage
The atmosphere shifts instantly, the air turning heavy and electric. I catch the feral gleam in Kayden's eyes, and though Asher's posture stays controlled, his gaze burns with the same heat.
"Are you sure?" Asher asks. "You're tired. Weren't you—"
"I'm sure." My words cut through, my chest tight, my pulse racing. "I want you to take me out of my head. To quiet everything. To make me feel only this—you. So all that exists is now and here."
They exchange a look, silent understanding passing between them.
"That," Kayden growls, sharp grin flashing, "we can do. Anytime. Anywhere."
Asher's eyes narrow, always the one to draw the line and confirm where it lies. "You want both of us?"
"Yes." The word leaves me fierce and certain. My hands clench in the sheets. "And I don't want you to hold back. I want something unforgettable, so tonight is marked by this, and not by everything else."
The last words crack as if I spit out poison.
