“I’m not exactly sure how to explain it. It was like two bad situations collided and merged into one.”
My fingers tangle into the hem of my shirt. None of them rush me. I don’t have to open my eyes to know their gazes stay steady on me.
I feel it.
“When we were in Seductions and Sab—she—had me wrapped in her power, she kept spouting off a crazy, half-assed plan for me. I swear she lost clarity because her mind was moving faster than her mouth. One second, she was saying she was going to keep me, train me, and your father was going to share me with her. Then the next, she was planning to give me to someone.”
“You didn’t tell us about this before. Who?” Creed’s low question sends chill bumps down my legs.
“Stop. Let her finish,” Kyzen says far more calmly than his brother. “Go ahead, Thayla.”
My head slowly shifts back and forth.
“I don’t know who anyway. That’s when…Mellcom tackled her. It happened the same way in my nightmare. Except they didn’t disappear in a starshoot. They both stood up and looked at me. Then it was…”
A heavy breath tumbles out of my mouth, and I rub my hand down my face. My throat burns with the desire to keep talking and to stop.
“It was just him. We stared at one another. Then it switched again to their eyes swirling around me. No matter where I turned, their eyes followed me. I realize now, in that room, I was bouncing from fear to trauma to fear. It was one thing after another then another.”
I force my eyes to blink open.
Creed does not a thing to hide his fury and Kyzen’s attempting to but failing. Amick’s a mix of contemplative and murderous.
My hand reaches for my cup, and I notice the tremors passing through Kyzen as he gives it to me, but I don’t draw anyattention to it. My sigh causes the water to ripple, then I inhale heavily.
“I guess tonight my mind decided to throw them both at me in my sleep. I do fear her. I fear the bizarre shit she wanted to do with me. And…it isn’t fear I still feel toward Mellcom, but he definitely haunts me.”
The pounding in my temples fades the longer the silence stretches on. It isn’t a weird or tense kind of quiet, though. I’m pretty sure they know I’m just trying to fight off the nightmare and nausea. I know for a fact they’re attempting to combat their fury before speaking.
I’m not the least bit shocked when it’s Kyzen who clears his throat first.
“I—we—need to be honest with you about something, Thayla.”
My head slumps to the side and I grunt.
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“It’s not bad. Well, it is but isn’t.” He tightens his lips and peers at his brothers.
They look a little confused, so he resorts to rolling his eyes and focusing back on me.
“When you were locked in that room, we shared with each other everything we know of that’s happened to you.”
“Why…oh. You all were trying to prepare yourselves for what I might go through.” He nods and I glance up at the ceiling.
My harsh breath echoes around us.
I honestly can’t imagine what it felt like for them in those hours. When Riven was gone, I kept creating scenarios based on my assumptions and ability to create some fucked-up shit in my mind.
They…gods, they had already gone through it, so they knew what was going to happen to me once they shared my past with each other.
I don’t know which would’ve been harder for me in their shoes.
Fabricating or knowing.
“I can’t tell if you’re upset with us or not,” Amick says and I grin at Kyzen’s scolding whisper.
“She isn’t upset. She’s relieved.”
