“A sword? You shouldn’t…” Creed trails off, glancing down at me, then rapidly moving his eyes back to Kyzen.
“That shit right there is going to stop. Today.”
My wavering voice catches all their attention. I clear my throat and put a leash on my slippery soul.
Obviously, some nosy ass picks this very moment to rummage his way through my chest, though.
“Your feelings are hurt.”
My nose scrunches at Creed.
“I’m bothered, yes.”
“Don’t say bothered like that. I feel you. Every part of you.” He tilts his head and his eyes flare when hefeelsme trying to shove his ass off my soul. “We really hurt you this week.”
All four of them surround me in a very coordinated—intimidating—formation. I don’t budge, though. I keep my shoulders back and chin tilted stubbornly.
“I just admitted that it bothered me.”
“It bothers me when people use more room than necessary to move around me. It hurts my feelings that they do that because they think they’re going to drop dead if their arm brushes mine. See the difference?”
Gods, that image hurts my feelings.
I’ll punch a motherfucker if I see them do that to him.
I swallow the uncertainty creeping through me. I understand exactly what he wants me to say since he laid that comparison out so clearly.
“It bothered me that you all were handling going back to the Abandon so hard and weren’t talking about it. But yes, you all did a few things over the last few days that actually hurt my feelings.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Amick asks.
“Because I didn’t feel like I had a right to. You’ve all been struggling since the second Riven got taken, and it felt stupid to be upset with any of you over small things.”
“It wasn’t small things, though, if it upset you.”
I open my mouth to deny Kyzen’s argument, but Riven’s stern voice cuts in.
“Tell us what we did that hurt your feelings.”
“I don’t think—”
“No, no, no. That’s not how it works. If you say this shit ends today, it ends on all fronts. That includes yours. You asked me last night if you weren’t worthy enough to hear our fears and if we didn’t trust you with knowing and protecting us from them. You can’t turn around and not trust us enough with telling us what we did that hurt you.”
“Did she really ask that?” Kyzen’s head whips to Riven, then back to me. “Did you really ask him that?”
“I…”
“She did. I also now know why she asked that, and I understand now why she’s acting the way she is about not telling us her feelings.”
“Riven,” I warn.
Nothing that I told him last night has to stay between us, per se, but I really don’t want to rehash it right this second.
“Then I’d advise you get to talking. I want detailed examples.”
“Fine, but first let me clarify that I didn’t expect any of you to lay it all out there for me and tell me everything that was wrong. I could see just fine that you all were struggling and needed some time. I didn’t expect the complete shutdowns, though. Those are what…hurt.”
Great.
