Page 123 of Bitten & Burned
And then there was Vael.
Every time I looked at him, my heart cracked a little more. I used to believe unspoken words were simmering beneath his silences. Now all I could hear was the echo ofWhat did you do?Snarled in my face as he dropped me onto the floor. The bond with him ached when I thought of it, a splintered hum that refused to settle.
He’d been angry, that much I knew. He’d come to apologize the next day, and I’d turned him away. He’d not tried it again. Maybe he never would. Maybe I should have let him apologize theday after the bonding ceremony. I’d just been so fucking angry at him.
He was certainly still angry with me; that much was certain.
He didn’t wish to share me, for one. But it wasn’t so muchhimsharing me as it wasmesharing myself. I understood that if he didn’t wish to be a part of this, he didn’t have to be. But he wasn’t the deciding vote on it either.
If he gave me an ultimatum, I couldn’t give up Anton. Or Quil. Or Cassian. Or Dmitri.
Butgods, I didn’t want to give up Vael either.
I hadn’t seen Quil since that morning in the kitchen. Not really. It felt like he was avoiding me. And when his eyes did catch mine, I didn’t see the usual mix of yearning and anger. I saw guilt.
I thought we’d moved past this. He’d seemed like a different person on the yacht. But maybe it was because I was sleeping in Anton’s quarters and not my own. I couldn’t imagine he wanted to come knocking on Anton’s door and curl up in bed between the two of us.
Therefore, I decided to go looking for him. Ask him what was going on.
I found him outside on the back patio. Storm clouds rolled in from the west, fat drops already spitting down, and he sat on a bench, face tilted into the wind as rain streaked his skin. The shift in pressure made the sigil on my thigh pulse sharp and hot, as if the storm had seeped inside me.
“Quil?” I said softly.
His eyes opened and flicked to my face. “Rowena? You shouldn’t be out here right now. It’s going to start storming; you should go back inside.”
“I don’t want to,” I said, planting my feet. “I want to talk.”
“So let’s talk inside.”
“No,” I insisted. “Here.” I knew if given half a chance, he’dattempt to lose me in the house again. I needed to talk to him. I needed to know if what I was feeling was real. “You’re avoiding me. Why?”
“I’m not?—”
“Don’t do that, Quil. I’m smarter than that. I deserve a real answer.”
His jaw tightened, and he immediately broke eye contact, looking down at my collarbone instead.
“I’m not,” he insisted.
“Bullshit. You won’t even look at me. Is this about Anton?”
He blinked, sighing and shaking his head. “No.”
“So you admit there’s a reason?”
“What? Yes. I mean—no.”
“Quil… come on. What is it? What did I do? Is this about the yacht? You saved me. I’m not upset that you don’t move at the speed of light. You saved me. They didn’t hurt me.”
“It’s not… just that,” he said, teeth grinding. “Can we go inside? You’re going to catch a cold. You’re getting soaked…”
I shook my head. “So talk to me quickly. Stop changing the subject. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong, Rowena, I just—fuck.” He stood and started pacing, his hair slicking on his head as he ran his hands through it. He looked at me, held my gaze. “Fuck.”
He moved in close—faster than I could blink—and suddenly I was in his arms again.
Just like that day—the day he couldn’t stop. The bond snarled when he touched me, sharp and electric, like it remembered the last time too well.
