Page 10 of A Sweet Destruction

“You’re a smart boy. I think our little conversation earlier filled you in on all you needed to know.” Even now, my cheeks heated with embarrassment at the scene I’d caused.

Something like a growl unleashed itself from Ford’s throat. I felt that sound right in the middle of my stomach. “Eight years. That’s how long I’ve thought that the Bond just never woke up. Now you tell me that was a lie. That you had,” he swallowed thickly, like the words were fighting their way up his throat like bile, “feelings for me.”

Everything happened so fast, I didn’t even register that I’d thrown a rock at him until he’d already ducked and popped back up again with his brows slamming together.

Silence fell around us and I spied Alec turning over his shoulder in a comically drawn out movement to stare at us.

“Turn around!” I shrieked, suddenly unconcerned with causing a scene. Ford and I were a famously even-tempered pair and this would surely spread through the camp like wildfire by morning, but I’d lost the ability to care.

I dropped my voice to a low, private tone and gritted out, “I did not say that I had feelings for you.”

Ford opened his mouth to protest and I lifted a staying hand.

“Before you get these grand ideas that I was heartsick over you, let me correct something.” Clearly, I had done a poor job of explaining exactly what I’d gone through. Unrequited love was one thing. The Bond’s wrath was another entirely. “It wasn’t feelings,” I spit out the word with disgust. “Think of it like a feral, starving dog chained to the wall, while a pile of fresh meat is across the room. No feelings.” That horrid word again. “Nothing more than base, primal insanity.”

Ford had the nerve to look a little shell-shocked. He recovered quickly, leaning toward me. “Then I assume learned ways to appease that hunger?” he asked, tone too inquisitive.

Like he was trying to prepare for something.

I scoffed, catching onto his meaning. “If it comes for me again, yes, I have ways to handle it. Lucky you, you won’t have to deal with it.”

Ford’s head tilted again, that little knowing move that rustled my anger like a gust of wind through a tree. “I look forward to hearing your methods, seeing as we have no confirmation that the Bond won’t appear for me.”

That was when I had enough. With zero finesse, I dropped the sledgehammer and turned away from him, jumping down the slope of rocks as fast as I could go. I was getting my own fucking tent for the night and taking some space.

There would be no more entertaining that line of thinking. Silly and useless, that’s what that was.

I stomped away from him, trying to shove away any intrusive thought that burst through, including that I might have just lied for Ford for the first time in my life.

Chapter 4

Ford

Well that was a new brand of anger. I’d gained a thorough education in the emotion over the past few hours. Learned how intricate it could be, how much that one word could capture.

And now, some panicked, haunting version of that red devil shot through my chest and down my arms like a firework.

The fuse had been lit the second Esme turned her back to me. Not even the rock she’d thrown at me had done it. That had almost made me smile.

Maybe the match had been struck when she’d shrieked that she didn’t have feelings for me. That felt…well, I didn’t find I liked it.

At the very least, I thought we’d achieved comfortable companionship over the years.

Apparently not.

That was the least of my concerns when she was damn near running away from me at a breakneck speed. That I certainly did not enjoy.

She had spent too long not speaking to me. She didn’t get to just run off whenever she wanted, leaving me with a million questions swirling in my head.

I tracked her, nearly on instinct. With most of our buildings felled, we didn’t have light to cut through the darkness anymore. Though Muli’s sky was scattered with brilliant stars, Esme was a but a dark, hazy figure in front of me.

Normally, I’d assume she was on her way to the cabin, but with that being a pile of ashes, we were in for a night in a tent.

Apart, I’d say. If she had it her way.

Not that the idea of sharing a tent with her when she had the temper of a feral rodent was all that appealing, but the thought of spending a night apart felt…

It felt.