Page 40 of Graves

Iswitch the lock into place, hating that I have to do it but knowing there isn’t a better option at this moment. Things have changed so radically in the last twenty-four hours. Everything has gone to shit, and if I didn’t need my fucking brother’s help, he’d be half digested on a pig farm or quickly decomposing in a vat of acid by now.

He’s leaned over the kitchen island, knuckles gripped against the marble edges, eyes locked on her locked door like he can burst it down with his gaze alone.Zayden has always been this way. He likes something, he fixates, and then that fixation turns into an obsession. First it was knives, then it was bloodshed, and now it’s…her.

When I step into his line of vision, blocking his view of her, his eyes are the only thing to move, flicking up to me in an irritated scowl.

“Move,” he grits out.

“Why? So you can stare at the door? No. We have work to do and plans to make to get us out of the shit situation you have now placed us in.”

Zayden’s knuckles tighten against the counter as he speaks.

“I’ve got it under control. I’ll keep him happy, and you keep her safe when I can’t be here.”

I shake my head as I move into the living room, grabbing my laptop before I fire up my software.

“That isn’t a life. What, should I just keep her locked in the bedroom until the end of time?”

“Yes.”

“No,” I scold. “She deserves more.”

His eyes are on the door, confliction flickering past his face before he nods once in agreement.

“I still can’t believe you called him,” I mutter under my breath.

His eyes fly over to me as he moves across the room like lighting. My laptop snaps shut before he throws it against the wall, forcing it to shatter into pieces.

Fucking prick.

“I still can’t believe my own brother, my fucking twin,would leave me like that. You left me to rot in prison so you could steal my angel. So, yes, I did whatever I deemed necessary to get out, get her, and kill you.”

I scoff and roll my eyes. The fact of the matter is that we both talk a big game. I think we would both do every single form of torture to one another gladly, but actually killing each other? Taking away the only other Graves this world has? We could never.

“You won’t kill me, and you know it,” I say with a shake of my head.

“For her, I would,” he says, causing my head to tilt to the side. “If it was between you living or her, it would be her. Every. Time.”

The seriousness in his tone and the manic look in his eye should irritate me, upset me at least. Instead, I feel a sort of peace with it as I nod.

“As you should.”

Surprise flashes across his face before he nods once.

“So,” I continue. “What’s our next move?”

ZAYDEN

I’m sitting in the chair on the far-left corner of the darkened room, the takeout bag firmly gripped in my hands. Her breathing is rhythmic, in, out, in, out. It’s mesmerizing theway her soft exhale seems to fill up this room, her rosy cheeks and full lips laying perfectly still as if she were a porcelain doll. She’s breathtaking like this. If I could keep her preserved like this forever, I would.

Maybe in death.

She must feel my presence because, in the next moment, she rouses awake, her eyes bouncing around the room before landing on me. Contempt fills her gaze instantly.

“What are you doing in here, Zayden?”

The sound of my name on her lips has me practically groaning. My cock stiffens to a steel fucking rod, and I do my best not to fall to my knees and eat her until she passes out right here and now.

“Dinner,” I say simply. “How did you know it was me without seeing my eyes?”

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