Page 51 of The City Of Fractured Memory

He looks at me pointedly like he can tell what I’m thinking. “I’m taking you both home.”

He releases my chin and we both rise, Riven turning to Stryx and bending to pick her up. I start to argue as he lifts her carefully into his arms, but he cuts over me before I get the chance.

“Do you really think you can get her home on your own? You can barely stand yourself,” he scolds me, and I feel my cheeks redden.

“I’m not some weak–”

“I never said you were,” he snaps. “If anything, you’re probably one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. I’m not asking you to apologise for your pain, I’m telling you to acknowledge it and let me fucking help you.”

I pause, reeling over his words, his sudden anger taking me aback. “You—you don’t think I’m weak?”

“Of course not, why would I?”

“Everyone else thinks I am,” I grumble, a little more sullenly than I intended.

“Who?” he growls, his eyes darkening, and my breath catches at his intensity.

“Keep talking like that and I might think you actually care.”

“Yes, Gods forbid,” he replies with a roll of his eyes. Then he turns his back on me and starts marching down the street, barking orders at the guards to sweep the perimeter and leaving me to hobble after him.

Twenty-Four

Ijust about manage to keep stride with him as we walk, Stryx remaining limp in his arms and the thought slowly dawning on me that he’s walking without direction, like he knows exactly where he’s going.

Of course he knows where he’s going. If he’s been leaving those notes, he knows exactly where we live.

I watch him carefully with narrowed eyes, though every time I sneak a glance at him, I catch his eyes whipping away from me.

“You’re staring,” he grinds out.

“And you’re not?”

“Octavia–”

“We can’t keep doing this,” I hiss, my impatience getting the better of me.

He raises his eyebrows. “I wasn’t aware this had become an us thing.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I seethe, my hands curling into fists at my side. “Why do you keep showing up everywhere I go?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“I’m being serious.”

“Maybe I’m following you,” he says with a shrug.

“Why?”

“Why indeed.”

I huff loudly, pinching the bridge of my nose, my patience hanging dangerously on a precipice. “What do you want from me, Riven? I feel like I’m going around in circles here.”

“Good, I’d hate to make it easy for you.”

Maybe this lock is going to be harder to break than I thought. Then again, I could break his face instead. At least that would be somewhat satisfying.

“You know, I think you might be the most irritating person I've ever met,” I mutter, and he chuckles darkly.