August pressed me away and tipped my head up. “You think I’d let thathappen?”
“You won’t be in the ring,” Imurmured.
My navel pulsed and heated. And then my body slammed into August’s, and it felt like hugging a rock, except this rock huggedback.
He dropped his mouth to my earlobe. “Of course, I’ll be there,” hewhispered.
My navel thrummed again. He was talking about using the tether tocheat.
“They must know what we are, August, which means they’ll keep you away from thefight.”
His gaze crowded with shadows. I gathered he hadn’t consideredthat.
“How about we discuss this off the street?” heasked.
Because my boots had become one with the sidewalk, he steered me up the stairs, and then he unlocked the door and pushed it open. After shutting it behind us, I dropped down in one of the dining room chairs while he went into the kitchen. He grabbed a dish cloth and wet it, then returned to tend to my arm. I tried not to wince, butfailed.
August’s jaw slackened and tensed, as though he were working out a kink in his cheek. “Why are you stillbleeding?”
I stared at the grooves Justin had etched into my skin. “Probably because I’m takingSillin.”
August’s green gaze jerked to my face. “Why are you takingSillin?”
I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth before releasing it and sighing. “Because we’re experimenting withit.”
“Experimenting?”
“I volunteered to take Sillin to test its long-termeffects.”
“You what?” he chokedout.
I was pretty certain he’d heardme.
His eyes gleamed with anger. “And Liam okayedthis?”
I got those two had baggage, but that didn’t give August a right to blame Liam for this. “I didn’t give him achoice.”
“He should’ve picked someone else to experiment on. You can’t be taking Sillin and doing all that training!” He clapped the table, which made me jump. “You shouldn’t even be doing all that training in the first place. You shouldn’t have signed up for anotherduel!”
“Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” Imuttered.
His nostrils pulsed. “I hate this.All of this.” He carved the air with his hand. “Ness, I lost you once before”—his voice shook with anger, but also with something else—“and I don’t want to lose youagain.”
I leaned over and placed my hands over his. “That’s why I’m experimenting with the Sillin. We suspect Morgan’s taking it, andshefought aduel.”
“She’s an Alpha, Ness. The way things affect her body isn’t comparable to the way things affectyours.”
I slid my hand off his and curled my fingers into mylap.
He leaned back in his chair, making the rungs creak, then looked toward my uncle’s closed bedroom door. There was no other heartbeat in the apartment—Jeb wasn’thome.
August crossed his arms. “Besides, she wouldn’t have been able to shift if she were takingSillin.”
“I’m trying to see if a habituation to the drug modifies the body’s response toit.”
“Habituation? How long are you planning on takingit?”
I studied the bloodied tracks on my forearm. Unspoken words saturated the air between us. He wasn’t pleased, but was it with me or with our theory? Or was it with something elsealtogether?
