Page 41 of Warrior

“The world went dark.”

“I closed your eyes.” He nods emphatically.

“There was nothing for so long. The pain faded, sounds faded, but I was still there.” My muscles tense, and I force my gaze to drop to Artemis again. Stroke her hair, convince myself we’re not in any danger.

A laughable lie.

“And then Kade came,” I continue.

“How did it feel to be carried out? Like a baby.” Gabriel makes a gesture like his mind is exploding. “And then waking up in the hospital… a rebirth.”

“Not quite.”

Inside, I was screaming.

And helpless.

“I see your fear,” he croons. “I know you don’t want to be trapped there again. In your mind. But it was good for you, don’t you see? You know what you have to do.”

I cock my head. “Do I?”

“Of course!” He smacks his thigh. “Of course you do, Reese. You’re going to protect Artemis from all the shit coming down on Sterling Falls… and you’re going to realize that you can’t.”

A chill descends on me. “What does that mean?”

He smiles. “Sometimes, destruction happens from the inside out.”

I stand, lifting Tem easily with me. Even though my muscles ache from disuse, and the beatinghegave me, it’s no true strain to carry her. She seems more fragile than she was. The time in the hospital did a number on her… she lost weight, definitely. The dark circles under her eyes only seem more pronounced.

I cradle her to my chest and jerk my chin at the door. “Do me a favor and open that, would you?”

Gabriel leaps to his feet and claps. “Oh, I do like your spirit. You’re so different from Kade, you know.”

I stiffen.

“Kade is too brooding. He doesn’t put up with my shit. They didn’t know that they were sending me back to my old playground… I spent a long time crafting my mask outside of Sterling Falls, and returning here, with power at my back, released me from those shackles.” Gabriel flings open the door. It slams into the far wall, and he strides out ahead of us.Completely unbothered about having me at his back. “I kind of figured he was in love with you.”

“What?” I choke out.

“Kade.” He glances back, scowling. “Why else would he riskherfor you?”

“I saved his life.” I shake my head. “It was just…”

He spins around and blocks my way to the elevator. “No.”

“No?” I blink. “No, what?”

“You saved his life, so he saves yours. Did that already, rescuing you fromme. Turning her in was just… extra. I like twisting the knife in people, so I didn’t mind.” His gaze drops to Artemis’s stomach. “I like putting people in impossible positions, because that’s where I live.”

“It wasn’t impossible.”

Gabriel steps closer. “That horrible, trapped feeling you had?”

I flinch.

“Ah, see, I knew it. You didn’t say it, but it was written all over your pretty face. That terrifying helplessness would’ve just… continued. Forever. Until one day, maybe when you would’ve been old and gray and hardly able to recognize yourself in the mirror, the drugs would’ve released you. And you would’ve missed decades of your life, and Artemis’s, and Kade’s.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a fun time,” I tell him. “Are you crazy?”

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