Page 13 of Twisted Gift

He grins. “Nah, I know I’m awesome.”

It’s my turn for an eye roll. I refuse to stroke his ego even though his voiceisamazing. He doesn’t need me to tell him that.

He sighs. “All right, all right. So, the day we met. Before I knew much about you, like before Jules started obsessing over you, there was a small group of us who were seriously getting tired of the guy.”

A shiver runs through me at the thought of Jules beingobsessedwith me. He’s still a huge question mark—one I’ll never get answers to by no fault but my own.

I frown. “So youweregoing to let them kill me?”

He waves me off. “Chill out, gorgeous. They weren’t going to kill you. They were going to use you to get shit they wanted from Jules. You were important to him.”

I scowl. He sure had a twisted way of showing it. Nikolai’s explanation doesn’t make me feel any better. How were they going to use me? I suppose it doesn’t matter now that Jules is gone.

“Anyway, that plan was ruined when your annoying Prince Charming got involved.”

I wrinkle my nose. “He’d kill you for calling him that.”

Nikolai smirks. “He’d try.”

I shoot him a dry look. “Funny. I still don’t quite understand why you’re trying to help me. I have fae friends.”

“Fae friends you won’t ask for help,” he points out.

I press my lips together and stay silent. I can’t disagree with him.

“Hey, I don’t blame you. I get it. I’d probably do the same thing in your position. That’s what’s so great about me—well, one of the great things about me. There are many.”

“Nik,” I mutter, rubbing my temples. This conversation was supposed to make me feel better; it’s just giving me a headache at this point.

He sighs. “You’ll let me help you,” he says, “because I don’t mean anything to you. You don’t care how you seem to me, how you appear, because I don’t matter.”

Huh. That actually makes some sense. That, or I’ve spent too much time with Nikolai, and he’s clouding my judgment. I wouldn’t doubt it.

He meets my gaze. “Listen, I’m not asking you to trust me blindly. I understand that’s something I have to earn, and I’m okay with that. But you have to let me prove myself to you somehow.”

I catch my lower lip between my teeth. “Okay,” I say after a beat of silence and prepare to crack open the lid I’ve kept on everything since I became fae. “After the night I, you know, I was really screwed up. Some of the things Jules told me about what he did... they made me question everything. I was scared the life I’d been living since I met Allison and then Tristan was fabricated—that Jules could’ve made me feel things.”

Nikolai frowns. “I don’t think that’s possible,” he says in a gentle tone.

I shrug. “I wasn’t in a good headspace while these thoughts were racing through me.” Hell, I’m still not. “And maybe Jules didn’t manipulate my emotions, but he sure as hell fucked with my life, and I think it’s fair that I need time to come to terms with that before I can move on.”

He nods. “I understand that. Is that why you left Westbrook?”

The room is silent save for the sound of our heartbeats. “I left,” I say, “because this was a problem I created, and it’s one I need to fix on my own.”

“You didn’t want his help?”

“No,” I force out. “I didn’t—don’tdeserve it.”

His brows pull closer. “Something tells me he would disagree with you.”

I almost laugh. “That’s his favorite thing to do.”

His lips quirk. “You don’t want to talk to him?”

“I can’t. Not now. Not while I’m like this. I don’t want him to see me . . .”

“Struggling?” he offers.

---