Page 96 of Her Dark Promise

“There she is! The whore of the hour.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and cocked my head to the side.

“What is your problem, brother?” Soren asked, exasperated.

“Brother? Is that what we are?” Bastian's eyes were wild as he couldn’t steady his breathing.

“What else would we be?”

Bastian turned and punched the wall, bones crunching against the stone, and I knew that his hand was broken.

“Stop it!” Soren rushed forward and tried to subdue him, but Bastian was too fueled by his rage and threw him off.

“You tasted her!” Bastian yelled.

The room went silent and I could see Soren blush.

Ah. Everything became clear. He overheard what Callum and I were talking about. Though why he was making a big deal out of it was beyond my comprehension.

“What does it matter?” He threw his hands up. “Callum fucks her every single day and you haven’t had any issue with that.”

“How does it feel not being a pathetic virgin anymore?”

I could see that his words stung Soren. I was tired of Bastian’s hateful words that were directed at the wrong person.

Soren seemed to be over his brother's antics because he walked right up to him and punched him. Bastian fell over and landed on his broken hand and screamed in pain.

“You fucking asshole. We haven’t even fucked yet.” Yet. I didn’t miss that part. “And even if we did, why do you care?”

“Soren, leave him to wallow in his self-pity.”

This was my first time using Soren’s name aloud in front of them, and Bastian caught it. Even in this state, he was alert and paid attention to every detail. Maybe he and his brother weren’t so different after all.

Bastian looked away and made a show of slowly standing up to face us. The three of us were next to each other, with him on the outside. But he was only like that because he wouldn’t pull his head out of his ass and give in. Let go of his hatred of me and live a little.

“I don’t care.”

There was hurt in his eyes, which was the only reason I walked up to him. He tensed as he watched me, not moving.

“I should let this heal on its own,” I stared up at him, “but I wouldn’t want it to heal wrong and you need this hand if you are going to jerk yourself off at night when you’re listening to me being the whore you say I am.”

He growled at me as I used my shadows on him, freezing him in place. I sliced my palm open knowing that he would need more blood than normal to heal his shattered hand. He fought me as hard as he could. I could feel my shadows working harder to keep him under control as I forced him to drink a few mouthfuls of my blood. I saw the bones mending and snapping back into place.

I leaned in and whispered, “We could be having so much fun if you stopped being so stubborn.” I leaned back and could see that he still wasn’t ready. Though if he kept up this attitude, then I would have to do something about him soon.

Lightning lit up the room, and the hair on my skin rose, anticipating what was to follow. Thunder.

I hurried out of the room as I called over my shoulder, “No one is to bother me tonight.”

I loathed the rain.

Not so much the rain, but the thunder that came with it. I hated to admit my shortcomings, but this was something that I couldn’t push through. I couldn’t sit there and pretend that the noise didn’t scare the shit out of me. So when it rained I would instruct everyone to not come near the library.

It had been that way ever since I was a small child. I had been playing outside with one of my father’s guards when the sky grew lighter. I marveled at the way the lightning lit up the night sky until I heard the most earth-shattering noise that shook me to my bones. The ground shook and I stood there thinking that the ground would break apart and swallow me whole.

I screamed and screamed while the guard was trying to calm me down, but it was like I couldn’t hear him. Not until I was lifted into strong warm arms that wrapped me in a tight embrace.

Father.

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