I lean forward to kiss him, but he pulls back. “No, bad fae. Down girl,” he scolds, capturing my wrists in one of his and turning to an equally furious Dorian. “Watch her.” He storms out of the room before the others can, slamming the door shut behind him.
There’s silence, and the longer it stretches on, the more deafening it seems to become. I start humming to combat it, not wanting to lose my happy buzz and think of things better left buried. Dorian claps a hand over my mouth and I arch my ass into him, not sure when exactly I got to my feet.
“Cambria, there’s a human in the next room.” He peels his fingers away, sharing a look with Lucien. “She’s burning up.”
Once he points it out, that’s all I can focus on. I start trying to strip my clothes off, but Lucien stops me and slips a pen in my hand.
“Start clicking it,” he commands, and I’m helpless but to obey. “Is that better?”
My head swims as I nod and stumble, but they’re both there to keep me from falling on my ass. A laugh bubbles past my lips and I mentally smack myself, trying to shake away the haze clouding my brain. I have a vague sense of being on the outside of my body looking in; aware that I’m making an idiot of myself, but unable to stop it.
Fingers snap in front of my face and I blink several times, Lucien’s amber eyes hard. “You with me, love?”
I lean back against Dorian, closing my eyes while my head spins and my stomach churns, leaving me nauseous. “I feel weird.”
A hand strokes over my arm and I hum in pleasure, every touch heightened. “Do you know where you are?” someone asks and I answer on autopilot, shifting my thighs together as a wave of arousal hits me hard.
“Shit, how much did she drink?” Jeremy’s panicked voice comes before the sound of flesh meeting flesh.
Could be a punch, could be someone going to pound town. Why the fuck can’t I shut up?
“Nobody’s fucking Jeremy. Get your head out of the gutter and at least try to focus.” At Atlas’ harsh tone, my eyes snap open again.
I push past a sudden, intense bout of dizziness. “Not my fault you kept topping up my glass.”
He looks contrite, but honestly, I don’t blame him. I would’ve skipped the glass and just drank straight from the bottle if I had gotten there first. It’s been kind of a shit week. What with the f-
“Cambria, sweetheart, none of your thoughts are staying in your head.” Dorian’s knuckles brush by cheek before smoothing a hand down my hair in a soothing, steady rhythm. “So you need to watch your train of thought,” he warns.
“Saving that for a special occasion?” Lucien asks, violence promised with his tone.
Jeremy throws his hands up in surrender. “Yeah, but not for any of the shit you’re thinking! Glass of that gives someone loose lips without feeling more than drunk. Good for getting information. I had no idea Atlas was going to go rooting around in the back of my fridge instead of grabbing the bottleI left out on the counter!”
There’s some arguing over if we need to risk going to the hospital to get my stomach pumped or something, but everyone finally agrees to just keep forcing water down my throat and see if I sleep it off before jumping the gun and risking all of the questions that will come from that sort of attention. At some point Jeremy leaves the room, self-preservation winning out as it becomes clear he might not live the night otherwise. I sure as hell don’t feel like lying down to try and sleep though, my heart beating as fast as a hummingbird’s.
“I need to burn off some energy.”
“No one in this room is having sex with you right now, angel,” Atlas adamantly decrees from where he leans against the opposite wall with his arms crossed. “So do some pushups or something.”
I groan, pacing the confines of the small room. “Hate and love you for that, but seriously, I feel off more than just-” I stop abruptly and gesture to myself with a flourish- “this.”
The three of them share a look before Lucien speaks. “Her family was siphoning her power. She likely just doesn’t know what it’s like when they don’t, mixed with being wired and amped up on drugs.”
“Literally standing right here,” I growl, detesting when anyone talks about me like I’m invisible.
Striding purposefully towards the window, I fumble it open and let the cool night air caress my fevered flesh. It’s a balm to my chaotic nerves, and my rising agitation isn’t doing me any favors.
“Love, you’ve got to stop.” A gentle hand lands on my shoulder, Lucien sliding the window back in place. “You’re going to give yourself away if you keep letting your abilities slip out.”
“Or what? If we reveal the fae to the humans we’ll be dragged in front of the queen and tortured to death?” I turn, leaning against the cool glass to face the overcrowded room acting more like a prison cell. “Hate to tell you, but that’s going to happen either way. Everyone is already trying to kill us, so why not actually let loose?” He pulls me against his chest despite my protests, only tightening his grip when my infuriated tears start soaking through his shirt.
“I was fine before you guys came along,” I croak, hating myself for not being able to stop. But the dam burst and with it comes the flood of things I’ve been trying to suppress for so long. “And I couldbreathefor the first time. Now I just keep getting stuffed in one cage or another, and no matter how far we run, some invisible chain keeps dragging us back.”
The hopelessness of the situation threatens to completely crush all of the pathetic walls I’ve built to keep myself sane through a lifetime of abuse. But they’re just as fake as everything else in my life, as fragile and breakable as I am.
Burying my face into his shirt, my voice comes out muffled and watery. “If they hate me so goddamn much, why won’t they just let me go?” Sobs wrack my body as I clutch the fabric, and no matter how much I scream at myself to stop, I can’t.
There’s a long stretch of silence while I cry myself out, a bone-deep weariness eventually settling over me. When Atlas passes me a bottle of water, I down it greedily, promptly followed by another. A headache is already pounding behind my eyes and I’m not looking forward to tomorrow in the slightest, but at least all of that energy has fizzled out now.
