To be frank, probably of the month.
His scowl intensified. Smoothed out. Repeated the circle once, twice. Thrice. Eventually, he scoffed, “It was your fault.”
My core tensed, and he slapped a hand to muffle my laughter, his palm dry and warm. The only thing I could be held accountable for was almost pissing my pants after he’d hit that tree—his dumbstruck expression had been too hilarious to ignore.
“Go to sleep.” A smothered smile was evident in his grumble.
And just like that, the constant storm in my mind dissipated. As if the winds had calmed down. As if the sea had leveled out. As if I could actually see the water gleaming in the sunshine, the ripples surrounding me in peace, all whooshing gone from my ears.
It felt as if I could finally…live.
A sharp pitter-pattergrew into a steady roar?—
I launched, sitting up straight, instinctively reaching for the sheath I usually had secured to my bicep. The mattress sunk as I angled myself in front of Gedeon and blinked the drowsiness away. On reflex, my muscles flexed in preparation as our one-story house came into focus.
Or more likeburnedthe focus into my retinas. Those two light sconces framing the door threatened to make me blind.
The deep, continuous sound cut off, and I zoned in on the dimness clouding the kitchen.
Holding a glass of water, Kali leaned against the limestone-colored laminate counters. From the check I’d run, the navy doors of the cabinets concealed nothing more but dry andcanned goods. And the three coffee bags Conall had dropped off the day we’d arrived.
Well, more like one golden bag. I hadn’t told Gedeon about the other two I’d already hidden in the trunk of our car. Figured he could work for it. He did make good scrambled eggs.
And as breakfast was the most important meal of the day, he could spread Kali on the table and eat her as an appetizer while I fed her forkfuls of eggs straight from the pan.
She blushed from my open exploration of her body. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
I swallowed the dryness in my mouth. The well of my fantasies was bottomless, and last night had spurred my imagination into overdrive. “You didn’t.”
Hugging a pillow instead of one of us, Gedeon didn’t move, too caught up in the land of dreams and nightmares. A building could collapse outside, but the heavy sleeper that he was, he would snooze right through it.
Which also helped me whenever I’d crept into his room at our compound to watch him sleep. The rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, the looseness in his jaw, the quiet and peace, they always calmed me whenever slumber failed to exert its rule.
Kali crossed her ankles, and a wince rocked through her.
I threw my legs over the edge of the bed. “What’s wrong?”
Not a speck of blood covered her fair skin besides the healing bruises from our training sessions, but what if?—
“It’s fine.” She glowered at me over the rim of her glass. “I’m just sore.”
Now that was definitely my doing. Smugness washed over me like the tap water filling?—
A crack razed my eardrums.
As if struck by lightning, the center of the kitchen window fractured. A spiderweb branched out across the transparent surface?—
The glass in Kali’s hand exploded.
49
GEDEON
Ahigh-pitched, shattering sound peeled my eyelids open.
The emptiness in place of two bodies beside me banished any residue of sleep dulling my senses.
I rolled out of the bed, falling into a squat, scanning my surroundings?—
