Page 116 of Warrior

Alive is alive is alive.

“Out,” he confirms. “He carried her away. Poor broken little bird.”

I glance at him. “What did you do?”

“Addiction is a strange thing, don’t you think? It has a hairpin trigger. Anything can set it off… sadness, loneliness, fear. Sometimes people don’t want to feel emotion. Some think they can’t feelwithoutit.” He taps his chin. “Which do you think Artemis is?”

I go still. “What are you saying?”

“Heroin comes from morphine. Did you know that? I found it fascinating. We give morphine to people in hospitals… all it took was a twist on genetic makeup. Well, I don’t know for certain. I’m not a chemist.”

“Gabriel.” I clench my fists and force myself to release them, finger by finger.

“I broke my favorite toy,” he says sadly. “She was fighting it. I just convinced her that everyone had abandoned her except for the drug. I don’t know if that’s how it is for everyone. Some never wake up.”

His gaze hardens, but I ignore it.

He got Artemis addicted to heroin?

How the fuck did I miss it?

I blow out a slow breath, my need for control superseding losing my shit on him. I would if I could—if this was a regular night, I’d beat him black and blue. But tonight is important. Even having this conversation in sight of the railing, and the people below, seems too public.

One wrong expression, and everything could fail.

The Cyclopes look up to Gabriel and me. Whether they follow one of us or both, we cultivated our places in the hierarchy. To see us fighting would only cause a ripple of dissent.

And with dissent comes weakness.

With weakness comes anarchy.

Gabriel bounces on his heels. “It was such a fun experiment. She hid from everyone. You didn’t notice? Can you think back and spot her lies?”

“Shut the fuck up,” I growl.

He hums.

Still bouncing.

Stillhappy.

“You thrive in this sort of chaos, don’t you?”

He lifts a shoulder. “I grew up in chaos, Kade. Stability gives me hives.”

Almost against my will, I find myself analyzing Artemis’s movements over the last few weeks. Besides the fact that she was avoiding me because I gave her to Gabriel to save Reese…

She burned my house down, which was a bit irrational. Granted, I think she has something going on with Saint. It could’ve been a territorial thing—and that’s why I didn’t push her too hard when I met her at Madness.

Also…

The bathtub.

Obviously.

Saint and Reese weren’t home when I arrived at the condo, and I let myself in. They arrived back sometime between me discovering Artemis in the bathtub with her clothes on and me picking out new clothes from her dresser.

However, I didn’t mention it.

---