“Are you okay?” he asks as he leans back, searching my eyes.
“I will be,” I manage, but fuck it hurts.
Let’s hope Alaric is able to fix me up.
With lots of painkillers.
But damn, it will be awkward seeing him for the first time after we spilled our guts over text.
Before I have a chance to settle, Sylus is there, lifting me off Nicholas’s lap with his hands under my armpits.
Sylus sits down in the armchair opposite Nicholas, positioning me on his lap instead, his arms winding protectively around me.
Right.He doesn’t like Nicholas.
He presses a kiss to the side of my throat, then rests his chin on my uninjured shoulder. I lean back into him, letting his warmth calm the tremors running through my body.
Nicholas’s gaze moves between us, and I see the flicker of hurt that crosses his eyes. “So, you two are… together?”
Sylus doesn’t hesitate. “Yep,” he says, popping thepbefore leaning in to kiss my temple, daring Nicholas to react.
I give Nicholas a small nod, watching as his face hardens, his lips pressing into a thin line.
“I’m with Koen too,” I add, ensuring everything is out in the open, and I don’t have to hurt him with that knowledge anew later.
Koen…
It’s new, raw, something I’m not entirely sure about yet, but it feels right.
I could have died today.But I didn’t.
I still could sometime soon while maneuvering through this mess, so why hold back any longer? Being theirs feels surprisingly right, and they don’t make me choose. Not between them, not between anything. They want me, and I let myself want this now.
Nicholas’s eyes widen. “Yourcousin?”
“Shit,Harrington.” Sylus bursts into laughter, shaking his head. “She’snotKoen’s cousin.”
“Of course not.” Nicholas huffs bitterly while his ears turn adorably red. His gaze drops to his hands. “Why would anything you said be true?”
“It wasn’talla lie.” The words feel hollow, but I mean them. Not everything I told him was deceitful. Most parts were real, painfully real. I understand why he doesn’t believe me, why he can’t see that messy truth. But it doesn’t make it any less true or hurtful, knowing I’m the one who did this to him.
I’m the one who lied.
“Yeah, sure.” He pushes himself up to stand and probably leave. “Fuck all of this.”
I try to stand, too, to keep him from leaving, but putting weight on my arm to push off of Sylus’s lap sends a sharp, searing pain through me. A hiss slips out as I fall back against Sylus.
God, it hurts, and I’m feeling so damn woozy.
“You okay, Sparkle?” Sylus murmurs. He lifts his hand to my cheek, stroking it softly with the knuckle of his forefinger.
“He calls youSparkle, Koen calls youGlitter…” Nicholas’s gaze snaps back to us. “You toldmeyour name was Rosie, but Alaric didn’t know it at all. What is it now? Does anyone even know your real name?”
The question cuts deep.
No one knows all of me.
And that’s on me. Maybe I’ve kept those pieces buried so long that I’ve even forgotten how to share them. It’s easier to hide, to keep the world at arm’s length. To lie, even when I wish I could tell the truth.
