“Easy.” He shrugged. “Because everything about you affected me. It wasn’t even the fact you could ease my pain. It was like...my entire soul just calmed down. Like it’d been searching for you all this time.” He pressed the heel of his palm against the warped piece of metal over his heart. “When those girls hurt you, I wanted to rip out their eyes and feed them to them. Whenever you were sad or afraid, it felt as though something was clawing its way out of my chest.”
Good God, what was he doing to me? “Pretty sure those are just called feelings.”
“They were a pain in my ass, that’s what they were.” Turning to face me, he murmured, “Every day, it got worse. I started admiring you when I learned how hard life was for you. I started trusting you each time you drew my blood. You were sneaky in your thievery, Rook, but somehow, I woke up one day and realised I didn’t want to spend a single day without you, which leads me to a problem because...seeing you so injured tonight? Feeling how close you were to death?”
His tone turned dark as the air sizzled around his shoulders. “It was the first time in my life that I understood what true fear is. And if youeverget hurt again. If youeverput yourself in a situation where things can go wrong...I’ll kill you myself.”
A shocked little laugh escaped. I waited for him to chuckle and release the tension, but he just glowered as if I was about to go out and get hurt, just because he told me not to.
“You know that threat doesn’t work anymore, right?” I ducked my head, all while daring to smile. “It didn’t work when we first met and you actually had a genuine reason to kill me. But now—”
“Now I’m even more determined to murder you if you ever get hurt again.” His eyes flashed with that scarlet ring. “If something were to happen to you...what would I do? What the fuck would I do if you died?”
He slowly sat up, wobbling a little, revealing he’d had too much to drink. “Also...I never hated you. I know I didn’t treat you well in those first few weeks but...I never hated you.” He reached forward and ran his thumb over my cheekbone. “I hated how fast you ruined me. I hated how much I wanted you. I hated how you made me want to break my every rule. But I never hated you, Rook. I merely hated the fact that from the very first moment I saw you...I already belonged to you.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
DRINKING WAS A MISTAKE.
Not because I was drunk but because I was struggling to stay in control.
I was too warm, too...sensitive.
As the sun continued to transform the dark night into a golden dawn, my awareness grew sharper, hotter, sensing things I shouldn’t be able to feel. It felt as if the sun reached inside me, connecting me to every living thing.
Not just Rook or Whisper but the fucking flowers and trees. The scratchy, stinging sensation kept getting worse.
I had to be losing my mind because I swore I could hear life itself. I could hear the bonsai that framed the terrace. Heard themgrowing—a million microscopic pulses all scritching and stretching—each stunted branch reaching for the sun as electrical sparks raced through their roots like tiny, frantic heartbeats.
A blast of fire quickened my heart.
Rook shifted and planted her feet down, making sure the black shirt she’d borrowed covered her. It only came to mid-thigh. It’d been the perfect nightgown while we’d had a nightcap on the terrace. But now it was just torturous.
My need for her was out of control.
It took all my strength not to touch her, take her.
“You feel it too, right?” I snapped, burning up.
She scowled, her skin glittering with frost like it had been all evening, driving me utterly insane. “Feel what?”
“The connection.” I made a vague motion between us. “The pull. Like there’s a string tied from my heart to yours, letting me feel everything you do.”
She shivered but then nodded shyly. “I’ve felt it for a while, but it became unavoidable when you were burning in the caves. It guided me straight to you.”
“I can smell you,” I confessed. “Not the soap you used in the shower butyou.”
“Me too.” Her eyes glimmered with that perfect silver ring.
“What exactlyisit?” I begged her to have the answer, but she just shrugged.
The sun suddenly breached the top of the peaks, flooding us in bright bronzy light. A rush of heat shot through me as if it made me some sort of conductor, feeding off its energy.
Devouringherenergy.
Buckling toward her, my hand wrapped around her nape, jerking her into me.
She almost fell off the lounger as I dragged her close and kissed her. Not gentle or careful but demanding and deep.
