Page 203 of Drown Like Heaven
Chapter 54
Micah
Obviously I knew Dakota and Mason were—and had been—fucking. I’d known it the instant they first saw each other in my house, because I could feel all those emotions in their heads. I had to assume Mason at leastsuspectedI knew, unless he’d become incredibly goddamn stupid and somehow couldn’t put those pieces together.
I mean, I’dseenhim on campus—likely going to her, I realized now. Even if he hadn’t known I could sense all his obsession towards Dakota in his brain, he would remember me seeing him there.
I hadn’t decided when I would confront Mason about it. I’d been enjoying watching him squirm, and knowing that the secrecy made his moments with Dakota evenslightlyless enjoyable was satisfaction enough. Same went for her guilt. If she felt any amount of guilt for lying to me every day, hopefully it made her orgasms with him slightly worse.
But as mad as I was at her, I couldn’t bring myself to want her any less.
Nor did I find myself capable of judging her questionable decisions.
When she’d spilled that tiny glimpse into her past trauma, it’d ripped my heart apart, only made worse because ofsomething I’d noticed about her before I knew anything at all. Sometimes when Dakota cried, she cried like a child.
Broken, exhausted, unable to get enough air in, gasping sobs, tired eyes squeezed shut, big tears rolling down her cheeks. The way she was so drained afterwards, like her emotions had taken such a toll on her body and all she wanted to do was sleep. It made more sense now.
When I saw her like that, how could I ever want to hurt her?
Dakota telling me about her brother was less of a confession, and more of a dare for me to stay. I could recognize that. I could recognize how she saw herself as messy and broken and untouchable. Now she just needed to recognize how I didn’t give a fuck about that.
I turned when I heard the door to the lab opening, Dakota slipping in quietly. She went to her usual stool. The distillation column was already running, and she was almost thirty minutes late, but I didn’t have it in me to scold her for it today.
“Mason talked to me,” she started, piquing my interest. I wondered how she was about to spin this, wondered what she would confront me about. He could’ve told her anything, but I had my suspicions.
“Yeah? When?”
“At your house before dinner.”
Doubtful. “Continue.”
“Why would you try and make me believe he hates you and you don’t hate him?”
There it is.
It was exactly the sort of thing I would’ve expected him not to be able to keep his mouth shut about. If she’d mentioned to him what I’d said, he would have a very hard time not correcting her misconception about me. He was itching to ruin me in her eyes, yet he wasn’t grasping how impossible that was, not unless he was ready to spill our entire past.
I was so tempted to take her doubt, take her mistrust, just so I wouldn’t have to lie now. Mason was making it so easy to cross so many of my self-imposed lines.
“It’s complicated. I don’t care enough about him to hate him, though.”
“And he does care about you? Why won’t you tell me how you know him?”
“I have told you. We’re both fallen angels, and he’s helping me out with some business.”
“What fucking business, Micah?” she snapped, hands on her hips.
“He kills demons, Dakota.” It was the truth, just not thewholetruth.
Her face paled and she crossed her arms over her chest, shoulders rounding. She narrowed her eyes, stepping away from me. There was something mildly unstable in her gaze, and I could almostseeall the ways she was barely keeping her head on straight.
Evil, precious, broken girl.
Let me hold you.
My endless desire to try and fix people, to hold their brokenness in my hands and mold it into something only I could cure. Even for a Thrausian, Mason had less control than most. And I was the exact opposite, because I was one of very few Sigeians with the ability to takeeverysense.
“Can we move past this?” I questioned, moving forward. She was shaking her head and for an instant, it made me irrationally angry. I tamped it down. “We have runs to do this afternoon.”
