She bristled. Like she was the one intruding on him?
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re kind of an asshole?”
“Lots of people, but calling myself one is new.”
“I told you, I’m not you.”
“Yeah, and I’m not the most handsome schizophrenic in this asylum.”
Stunned. She was stunned.
Who was this man?
“Look, I don’t know who you are or how we’ve connected, but I’ve had a really shitty day and I–”
“Yeah, you said that already.”
“Fuck. You,” she spat, her voice ringing through the bathroom. White-hot anger flooded her veins as she fought for control of her body. She didn’t know that walking away physically would help, but she was damn sure going to try.
She made it to standing and used the wall to walk toward her bed chambers. Screw taking a shower. She needed out, and she needed it now.
“I wish you could, honestly. It’s been me and my favorite hand for too long.”
Xia screamed, though it sounded more like a mix between a shriek and a growl. She urged her body faster, but it wasn’t ready for the change in pace. She stumbled, her ankle buckling as she twisted and fell.
Her head hit the bathroom counter on the way down and the resounding crack made her stomach lurch. Black spots dotted her vision as something warm ran in rivulets down her ear and neck.
Blood.
Pain reverberated through her skull as she laid a whimpering mess on the floor.
“I just want it to be over,” she wept. “I’m so tired.”
Nausea hit hard and it took the last tendrils of her willpower to hold back the vomit. Not that anything would come up. She hadn’t eaten in days.
“Hey,” he spoke up, his voice low and concerned. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Leave me alone. I’m just a figment of your imagination, remember? So what do you care?” Xia gagged from the exertion threatening to overcome her.
She was bitter, sick, exhausted, and tired of his games. She’d only known whomever this was for a few minor moments but she already hated him. The Fates were twisted if they thought this asshole was anything close to a lifeline. If anything, he would be the hand that pushed her from the cliff.
“I… I don’t know what to believe. I spend all day, every day fighting my own mind to determine what is real and what’s a hallucination. I hear voices, I see shadows move, I live in nightmares. It’s exhausting,” he whispered.
She knew defeat when she heard it for she’d felt it every single day of her life.
Her compassion quickly overrode her fury as she spoke “I spend my days locked in a glass prison. I spend my nights dancing for handsy men and whatever else they’ll pay for that pleases my captor. And that’s if I’m lucky.”
“What happens if you’re not lucky?”
“If I’m not lucky, I spend my nights tied to the bed enduring nightmare after nightmare to feed his power, and then sleep in a pile of my own mess on the bathroom floor where he leaves me.”
He cursed under his breath, the words unintelligible through whatever bond they shared.
After a moment he spoke again. “Are you up for a deal?”
“Depends on what kind. I already kind of hate you.”
He chuckled but continued. “Let’s just pretend.”
