Page 164 of House of Pain
The moment the carriage moved through the air, Blaze let go of Val’s hand, his fingers gripping her neck instead.
She didn’t even gasp.
“You fucking crossed the line, Val,” he hissed right in her face.
Val’s face remained still for a moment before her lips twitched. Blaze tightened his grip, but her grin only grew.
“I did what I had to do to ensure that our House doesn’t burn.”
Blaze slammed her into the wall behind her back. “You did what you felt was good for you. Don’t fucking pretend that you did it for the House.”
“Can someone explain what the fuck happened?” Andro asked.
Val kept Blaze’s gaze when she spoke to Andro. “Oh, didn’t you know? Blaze and Alecto fucked, both finally not clearly pretending to hate each other.”
“Oh.”
“It’s none of your fucking business,” Blaze warned. “You should have kept your mouth shut about it. If I hear about you spying on me for my father one more time, I’m going to—”
“You’re going to do what,Blazy?” Val challenged him. “You’re going to beat me like your father beats your mother, huh?”
Blaze wasnothinglike his father.
“You’re going to punish me by getting me in trouble at school? Maybe getting me expelled by blackmailing the Dean into giving in to your whim?”
Blaze blinked, his chest heaving for a moment.
He moved away, pulling his hand off Val’s throat.
“Or are you going to drag me to the fucking forest and leave me as a meal for the spiders, hoping I won’t survive?”
Stop. Fuck.
With his heart hammering, Blaze turned to the window, watching the distant lights of night city being left behind as the carriage flew over the thick forest.
He fucked up.
What was inside him was no better than what his father was. You can’t offer anything good to those around you when all you’ve ever known was darkness.
“You don’t know shit about me,” Blaze said, raking a hand through his hair.
Val remained silent.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to take the one thing you value more than anything else in life instead.”
“Blazy—” Val started, but he didn’t let her finish.
Blaze turned his cold, hollow eyes on her then as he warned, “I’m going to ruin you, Val. Mark my words.”
Maybe Blaze was more like his father than he’d ever allowed himself to believe.
53
Blaze sucked on the blunt between his lips so hard, his lungs burned.
He ignored the pain, the urgent need to gasp for air as he held the smoke in. After a moment, he released it in a low, steady stream, watching as the gray tendrils danced with each other—lean bodies, thick bodies, unnaturally long bodies whirling together before disappearing into thin air.
A light cough rattled his chest, and then he brought the blunt right back between his lips.
