“I scoured your mind until I found the answer to the question I gave you several chances to answer.”
“You held me down against my will, entered my mind without permission, and then used it as a weapon against me?”
How could he explain that it wasn’t him that’d done it? How even though he and Chaos shared a mind and body, they were completely different beings.
“Yes.” His jaw clenched at the admission.
“Yeah,” Nyx scoffed. “That’s what I thought. Aren’t you going to the Freakshow to hunt down and kill some doctor who did the same thing to you?”
Was that what he was doing?
“Yes.”
“Maybe you should just join her since you’re not any fucking better.” Tears glazed her glowing violet eyes and the indignation in her voice hurt.
We are doing what we must.
Nyx turned her back on him and walked with silent, deliberate steps down the hall and to her room. He would never tell her that he could hear the soft sobs filtering through the thin walls,or taste the salt of sadness and despair radiating from her soul as she poured it out in private.
“Brooks?”
Xia’s voice eased a layer of calm back over his body like a blanket, but he couldn’t help but stare after Nyx. Her words were unsettling, and he wanted to crawl out of his skin.
“What was all of that about?” She spoke from the door without walking toward him.
“There was information I needed to keep you safe. She wouldn’t give it, so Chaos took it.”
“What do you mean, took it?”
“I…” He turned to face Xia and watched with sorrow as unease settled across her beautiful features. “I seized her mind to find the location of the portal. I did it so we could leave this place and get one step closer to our forever.”
“Brooks.” Xia shook her head as she stepped back. Fear turned to fury as the blues churned with the greens in her eyes. “You can’t just hurt people to get what you want.”
Brooks swallowed as the weight of what he was going to say rested on his chest. He knew she wouldn’t like it, but he would not lie to her. Though Chaos was the one who hurt the girl, Brooks wasn’t sure he would take it back. He met her stare and didn’t falter as he said, “I am not a person, Xia. I am the Father of Chaos, and I will not hesitate to hurt or kill anyone who stands in my path. You are my priority, and if the world has to burn for it, then so be it.”
Xia stood with her back pressed against the door and couldn’t move, or breathe, or think. Her heart rate picked up speed as her mind tried to understand what she’d just seen and heard.
That was not the man she’d met in the asylum.
“I think we need to talk.”
His brows knit as he swallowed and nodded, his hand gesturing down the hall to their shared room. Xia led the way and her body was all too aware of his presence at her back. They stepped through the threshold, and didn’t turn as the door clicked shut. She’d wanted nothing other than to be in his arms for so long, but the man who walked out of that asylum was not the same one who was held prisoner.
He told us that. You simply refused to listen.
“I need to understand what’s happening,” she whispered. “Who this person is.” Xia turned to face him then but kept herdistance. She didn’t want the needs of her body to muddle those of her heart. “I need to know that you’re a safe haven to stand by me as I heal. I don’t need another captor, Brooks.”
“Xia, I would never–”
“Not intentionally, I know.” She cut him off. “But this innate need to protect isn’t going to allow me to grow. It’s going to suffocate me. Do you understand that?”
He looked to the floor as a single tear caught the moonlight and fell to his feet. “I just want to give you everything,” he whispered.
And you will take everything.
Xia closed the distance between them in two long strides and held his face between her palms. “Youareeverything, Brooks. I don’t need you to be more than that. You kept me tethered to this world when I wanted nothing more than to see it end. You deserve a partner who makes you better by complimenting you in every way, and I want to be that for you,” she swallowed as her Siren rose and lended her strength. “I don’t need anyone to give me what I want. If it’s important, I will take it. If I need it, I will ask. If it involves me or my life, I will make the decisions. I want to stand by your side. Not in your shadow.”
Xia dipped her head to catch his gaze and urged his chin upward. He needed to know what she felt for him, and how much he meant to her.
