“Just give her half an inch to breathe. She didn’t tell you to fuck off,” Soren says. “She went through a lot, and the least you can do is respect when she wants to be touched or not.” There’s a venom in his tone I’ve never heard before, and if I’m not crazy, an undercurrent of pain too.
This is nearly more than he’s said around me the whole time we’ve been together, and rather than hope he’s opening up because I’m here, I realize it’s being near his brother that’s having him talk. The two of them being so deeply at odds isn’t good for either one, and I hate myself a little for having come between their relationship. Soren may have hurt me, but was betraying me really bad enough to lose his brother? I’m not convinced the answer is yes.
“I told you I don’t want to fucking see you around, and you show up here with her,” Orion says. “You’re just lucky Sable has clearly been through a lot, or I’d put my hands on you instead since you’re so interested in her getting a break from them.”
“I’m not stopping you,” Soren says. There’s a hot flash of tension between them, but I throw up my hands.
“The two of you are going to stop fighting right now. I am not doing this. I don’t even want to be here, and Iwillleave.” Both of them look cowed. Soren’s eyes drop to the floor, and he’s immediately silent. Orion gives me a puppy-dog look and reaches to touch me again.
“We won’t fight anymore,” he promises.
“Good, because Lex is right. I am tired.”
I never planned to sleep in the Offering room again, but here I am, and somehow, the room that was once a prison to me is a place of comfort. Bellthorn might be a huge, horrifying placewith snakes and traps around every corner, but the sheets are soft, and the boys are strong. The shaking passes, the anxiety slips from my fingertips, and the images of my uncle touching me and his corpse later fade too.
“Will you guys hold me?” I ask. They all immediately comply, except for Soren, who heads for the door. I want to say something to stop him, but I don’t know what. I’m scared for him, worried about what’s happened, but I don’t know if that means I’ve forgiven him for it. The guys certainly haven’t. Even if I want to feel his arms around me, now isn’t the time. My heart tugs as he goes, but before he can reach the door, a familiar voice speaks, shattering the illusion of comfort.
“Oh, isn’t that cute? You are all here together. Are you waiting to greet me?”
My stomach drops, and my skin crawls when I lock eyes with Arabella Aragona.
CHAPTER 33
ORION
“What the fuckare you doing here?” someone asks from beside me, but I can’t recognize their voice. Everything sounds far away, the scene blurs and focuses, like my brain itself can’t understand what’s happening and is struggling to reframe the impossible. My sanity peels away and slips into the ether.
“Please leave,” a panicked voice says.
“Well, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. I’m surprised you’re not happier to see me, Soren.” That’s Arabella. Her voice sounds practically demonic compared to everyone else’s. How could Soren let all of this happen to Sable overher. I watch them all move in slow motion. Sable’s touch on me is the only thing tethering me to this spot.
“I’d think you’d get the hint, given he’s blocked you ten times over.” That last one was Hadrian, and I wonder how the fuck he knows what my brother is doing. Are the two of them buddies again? Wouldn’t surprise me, given Hadrian is also a snake. But also, if my brother blocked the bitch and didn’t even want her, then why would he risk Sable over her? Why would she be here right now if it weren’t for my goddamn brother? She was already at Bellthorn. She didn’t need a scholarship.He did this.
“If you knew him like I did, you’d know he’s just playing hard to get.”
The spell breaks.
Her voice ignites anger I tried to ignore, and hot fury uncoils from the pit of my stomach. Sable will be safe for the moment with the others, and I leave her side with my eyes on my target. Resentment, hatred, and a kind of rage I didn’t think I was capable of fuel me as I advance on him. My hand balls into a fist and cocks as I approach him. I swing, stepping forward as I make impact with his jaw to put my body weight behind the punch. I’ve had this punch brewing in me for an entire month, and the force takes him straight off his feet.
Pain ripples up my knuckles, and I’m sure at least one is cracked, but it’s worth it. I’d like to hit him again. I step forward, planning to do just that.
“Fuck,” Soren says, spitting blood. There’s something so unhinged about watching a cursed version of myself bleed.
“Oof, that had to hurt,” Parker says.
A need for revenge I’ve never felt before surges through me, and I want more of that blood. Soren is the one person in the world I thought I could trust above all else. He may have treated me like an annoyance, pushed me away at every turn, and rejected me like a stray dog begging for scraps, but I thought sharing identical DNA with the man meantsomething. I was so wrong about that, and knowing that, after everything he could do, he could do this? I wish neither one of us ever existed, that we’d never been allowed into Sable’s life to hurt her in the first place.
“You brought her here? You thought we wanted to share your whore with you?” I spit on the floor beside him, preparing to fucking kill him right now with my bare hands. He was there to rescue Sable when I wasn’t, and he did this? If Sable could killher uncle with an old shoe, surely I can take care of this stain on my name.I’m going to kill him.
Before I get the chance, a series of hands grip me. All of them are on me, pulling me back as hard as they can like they can see my plans.
“You can’t kill him,” one of them says, and I realize then I must have said that out loud.
“You drove her away, and now this? How dare you?” I scream, my rage impotent now that they all have me. I don’t have a chance of fighting off all three of them. Soren says nothing, eyes hard as he stands and dusts himself off. I beg for an explanation, but the silence only stretches, and he gives me nothing in return for the blood spilled. As if he’s not fucking with everyone’s head, Soren leaves, closing the door of my room in my face.
“Well, this is awfully dramatic.” Arabella laughs. “Is it always like this?” She shoots Sable a conspiratorial look, like the two of them are friends, and she’s in on this. I could kill her too.
“It wasn’t him, Orion.” Lex’s words fall on deaf ears, and I shake in their hold. Fuck them all if they think I’m going to sit and think this through. I turn to Arabella instead, ready to deal with the problem the only way I know how.
