His gaze went dark. “She beat you.”
“She’d tie me up and throw me in the closet sometimes,” he admitted. “If I couldn’t use one hand properly, I wouldn’t be allowed to use either. It was meant as incentive.”
“That bitch.”
“I’m not disagreeing, even though she’s my mother.” Rabbit recalled the information bomb Baikal had dropped earlier and asked, “What about your dad? You two are close. Are you…okay?”
“You mean because he’s dying?” Baikal seemed to be considering his words and then, “Let’s not get into it right this second.”
“Why? Why are you the only one allowed to ask the hard questions?”
“That’s not it,” he said. “I’m glad you’re showing an interest, Rabbit, and I want to tell you. I will tell you. But…”
Rabbit searched his face. “It’s like me with my memories, isn’t it? Some things are too upsetting to just randomly bring up.”
“Yeah.”
That’s why Baikal had understood whenever Rabbit had told him not to press that issue.
“Why are you trying?” Void asked him then. “What’s changed? Don’t tell me it’s because I took your virginity. You aren’t the type to cling because of something like that.”
Baikal took his chin between two fingers, waiting until Rabbit looked at him once more. “What’s really going on in that sensual little head of yours, bunny? Don’t leave me in suspense.”
Rabbit took a stuttering breath and just went for it. “You’re the first person who’s given me a choice.” He chuckled humorlessly. “Even if the choices aren’t really choices at all. Even if the end always leads back to you, at least you let me decide how I get there. You let me set the pace.”
Baikal watched him closely. “You’re making me sound far nobler than I am, Rabbit.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I know what you are, Void. I’ll never forget that. How could I when everywhere we go there’ll be someone whispering devil? I’m not saying I’ve mistaken you for a good person. I’m saying even knowing that you aren’t, you’ve still somehow managed to crawl under my skin.”
“You’re admitting all of this out of fear,” Baikal concluded suddenly. “But it isn’t fear of me.”
“She won’t like it,” Rabbit told him. “She’ll try to keep us apart. Even if I give in, even if that’s my choice, she’ll stop at nothing to make you stay away from me.”
“I’m not afraid of your mother,” he began, but Rabbit stopped him.
“You saw that video.”
Baikal frowned. “That guy? Who was he?”
The jealousy was so intense it threatened to gouge out Rabbit’s eyes, but he held his ground.
This was progress for him. Being able to talk about it, in any capacity. It was progress.
“Someone who tried to get close to me once,” Rabbit said quietly. “She wasn’t pleased.”
“He refused to stay away, that it?”
He nodded.
“I’m a Brumal Prince. It’ll take a lot more than a disgruntled mother to hurt me. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then—”
“I want a new deal,” Rabbit stated, the idea only just now coming to him. If he were smarter he’d wait and let it ruminate since he was already eighty percent certain he’d regret it come morning, but he wasn’t thinking clearly. Right now, with the dim lighting and the cloying scent of Baikal, combined with the heat of his body…Rabbit didn’t want to think clearly. He just wanted to act.
For once, he wanted to do what felt right tohim.
