Page 31 of The Reckoning
“That’s what I’d like to know.” I lean forward in the chair—the walk, the fresh air, none of it seems to have helped, as I notice the marks on Lilian’s neck again.
It should be my lips on her neck and my cock inside her.
Deep down, I know I have no right to claim her, but my brain doesn’t give a shit about rational thoughts.Lilian is mine.Always has been, even if I hadn’t been ready to admit it. As if Arson can sense the change in my demeanor, his posture stiffens. I drag in a breath, slow and steady, forcing the storm back down. Calm. Controlled. I’ve lived my whole life wearing the mask of restraint, pretending I could master what I feel. Still every time I look at her, I see him, my brother claiming her, and it kills me. It eats me alive from the inside out.
“Aries.” Lilian’s voice is soft, careful. She sees it—the way my fists tighten, the tremor I can’t quite hide. “Relax. Let’s talk about this, okay.”
I try again—inhale, exhale, calm—but the words claw their way out anyway.
“Tell me, Brother…” My tone is almost even, but it cuts like glass. “Did you fuck her just to spite me? Or because you can’t stand the thought of me having something you don’t?”
The air between us snaps taut.
Arson reacts instantly, fury flashing across his face. His voice is a snarl, sharp enough to flay me open. “She doesn’t belong to anyone. You’re just too blind to see it. Too much of a coward to say what you feel. You’re jealous—jealous that I can admit it, jealous of what we share.” The words detonate in my chest, cutting deeper than any fist ever could, because he’s right. He’s stolen the one truth I’ve never had the strength to voice.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Lilian slide to the edge of the bed. “Stop, both of you.” The fire in her blue eyes, the steel in her spine—this is the Lilian I’ve always admired. She’s so strong despite her supposed fragility.
Determined despite being constantly underestimated.
Fuck, this is the woman I’ve missed, the one I’ve longed for. She pushes off the bed and slips between us, and somehow it feels like she’s trying to protect him.Why him? Why fucking him?“I already explained this to Arson, and I intended to tell you as well. I can’t keep doing this. I won’t keep doing this. I refuse to be caught in the middle of your hate for one another. Choosing between the two of you isn’t an option. It would kill me.”
“The last thing I want to do is hurt you, Lilian.” It’s true, even though I know that’s exactly what I’ve done. All the times I pushed her away, lied to myself, and ignored her. It was another slap in the face to her.
Lilian can’t see Arson because her back is to him, but he tilts his head to the side and curls his lip, a cross between a sneer and a smirk appearing on his face. “I would never make you choose, Lilian. You know that, but I think it’s obvious who gives a fuck about you and who doesn’t. He had a chance to claim you, and he threw it away.”
“Are you kidding me? You know nothing about my relationship with Lilian. Every fucking choice I ever made was based upon her. To protect her, to ensure she wasn’t used as another fucking chess piece on our father’s board. I didn’t throw shit away.”
Arson’s laugh is low, humorless, the sound of someone twisting the knife because he knows exactly where to strike. I know he’s goading me, baiting me into a fight but I can’t stop myself from giving in to the rage. This has been a long time coming.
“Protect her?” he repeats, shaking his head. “All you did was hide behind excuses. You call it sacrifice—I call it cowardice. You never claimed her because deep down you knew you weren’t man enough to.”
My chair screeches against the floor as I shove to my feet, muscles coiled tight, fury searing through me. I don’t just stand—I rip the chair back and toss it aside, the crack of wood hitting the floor rings in my ears.
I don’t think. I don’t breathe.
I lunge and swing wildly, aiming for the brother who stole everything—my life, my freedom, and now the only woman I’ve ever given a fuck about, and maybe even loved. Arson sidesteps easily, a lifetime of fighting giving him reflexes I lack despite our identical genetics. I’m not thinking things through, not able to rationalize. I’m all anger, all pain. I just want to hurt him. To make him feel even a fraction of what he’s caused me.
“Aries, stop!” Lilian shouts, her fear-laced voice sinking in.
I pull back just in time to avoid hitting her, my heart thunders in my chest, and a fresh wave of horror ripples through me.
What am I becoming? What has he made me into?
“I’m done,” Lilian says, voice cracking with emotion. “With the fighting. The hatred. All of it. I locked you in that cell to try to fix the problem, but it seems all I did was make it worse. If all that matters to both of you is getting revenge and seeing how much you can make the other person hate you, then I want nothing to do with either of you. This is my life, too, and regardless of what you both think, I have a say in what happens inmyown life.”
Why does it feel like she’s leaving, like she’s slipping through my fingers all over again?Because she is. She’s telling us that she isn’t going to be caught in the middle of our hate anymore, and she means it. I can see it in her eyes and feel it in the tremble of her voice. It kills her, but she’s willing to walk away from us both if we can’t figure this out, and that thought guts me. It cuts me right down the fucking middle.
Lilian moves from between us, and we both seem to turn in her direction, gravitating toward her like she is our sun.
Arson recovers first, taking a half step toward her before thinking better of it.
“Lilian—”
“No.” She cuts him off, eyes blazing. “I mean it. I’m not going to let you two tear each other apart over me. That’s not who I am. That’s not who I want to be. If your hate for one another is greater than your feelings for me, then you can have each other.” She looks between us, something like determination—or maybe resignation—settling in her blue eyes. “If you can’t figure it out and make it work, then I’ll do this on my own. All of it.”
The silence that follows is thick enough to choke on. Arson stares at her with an intensity that makes something twist in my gut—possessive, protective, something I’ve never seen from him before. The look doesn’t belong on my face, yet there it is, mirrored back at me in the most fucked-up way possible.
“Lilian,” he says again, voice uncharacteristically gentle. “It’s not safe for you to be alone. These men are dangerous. Whatever they want with Aries?—”
