That throws me off. “How? Because we’re reapers?”
“Because you’re our reaper,” he stresses while tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Multum magna creatura.”
I give him an unimpressed stare. “You know I don’t know what you’re saying, and I really wish you’d just stop. Or at least just tell me what you mean.”
He takes a long drink, his gaze never wavering from mine, even when he lowers the glass. “Did we already established that I say it in a language you don’t understand because it’ll be too much for you to hear right now?”
My lips twitch with my annoyance, but part of that is more due to the fact that my skin has started to feel like it’s on fire.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock, I swear the burn whispers.
“How is that for you to decide for me?” As frustration whirls through me, I bring the glass to my lips, throw my head back, and drink.
And drink.
And drink.
And yep, I end up consuming the entire thing.
It tastes like spun sugar and sparkling fruit, and my veins hum with warmth.
“Shit,” Blaise curses and swiftly takes the glass from my hand. He sets both his and mine down onto the table then looks around at his brothers, all of whom are shifting with uneasiness.
“What?” I stare at them. “Why give me the drink if you don’t want me to drink it?”
“She has a point.” Alex tips his head back to finish the rest of his drink. Once he’s done, he cocks a brow at Rhyland. “You shouldn’t have given her so much.”
“You saw me pour it,” he argues, flicking a concerned glance at me. “And I was distracted.”
“Well, you need to be more careful,” Alex presses in a tone that is unlike him. Usually, he’s all lightness and humor. Right now, though, he looks utterly irritated with Rhyland, who normally is the most collected, but he looks a bit unhinged right now. “Especially when it comes to her.”
Rhyland’s gaze locks on me. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I really am.”
“Sweetheart?” I give him a really look. “You sound like Blaise.”
“And that’s a bad thing because …?” Blaise wonders from beside me.
I smirk at him. “Because you’re annoying.”
“And you’re feisty,” he points out, leaning toward me. “Besides, you like my annoying-ness.”
“No, I don’t. And going back to five seconds ago, why does it matter if I drank so much? I don’t feel drunk or anything.” I giggle. “Honestly, I feel totally fine.”
Blaise’s brows spring upward. “You feel fine? You just giggled.”
“So. That’s not totally unnormal for me.” I stand up, and the room wobbles and spins.
Or maybe that’s me.
“Jaxon, I think you should teach me how to fly right now.” I start twirling around with my arms out, but it only lasts for a moment before his arms circle around me.
“Easy, princess.” Blaise’s breath caresses my eardrum. “We don’t want to risk you getting hurt.”
“But I’m already hurt.” I rest back against him, his chest cold against my overheating back where I’m pretty sure my flesh is peeling away, like my arms. “I’m withering into nothing. Soon, I’ll be nothing but a pile of ash.”
Rhyland’s brows knit as he slants forward, eyeing me over. “Are you saying …?” He leaves the question out there.
“Yep, the withering has started.” Then, just to make sure I’m living up to my drunkass potential, I shove the sleeves of my shirt up and gesture at my disgusting peeling arms that look like the bottom of a fire where the embers burn, slowly suffocating and dying. “Ta-da.”
And that’s about when I black out.
Chapter 4
Blaise
I’m trying not to freak out, but I’ve never been good at that. Alex is the joking one, Rhyland is the responsible one, Jaxon is the quiet one, and I’m the one who freaks the fuck out. It’s how it’s been for a really long time. But I’m usually better at keeping my composure. With Hadley, however, I feel like I’m lost in a turbulent sea of souls begging to be drunk, to be saved.
And I want to devour them. Devour her. And that, according to Rhyland, is a problem.
“You can’t just force her to feed from us,” Rhyland tells me as we stand around Hadley. She’s currently lying in my bed, because I chose to carry her to my room instead of her own for so many reasons, some of which Rhyland would say are fucked up.
“Why not?” I growl, my fists balled at my sides. “We can’t just let her stubborn ass wither away. We need to do something.”
Alex is sitting on the bed beside her, and he reaches over to stroke her head. “If we force her to feed from us, she’ll hate us. Is that what you want? To have her but also have her hate you for eternity because you forced her to do this? It’s not even just about her feeding to survive. She’ll become queen. And we’ll be kings. Are you ready to force that fate on her?”
I want to say yes—and that is partly true—but the other part of me withers at the idea of her hating me for eternity. As for her being the queen … I’m not sure about that part. Hadley could love it or hate it. It’s honestly hard to say, due to the fact that I could see her getting off on controlling a kingdom, but at the same time, she seemed pretty adamant about not wanting to be part of this reaper world.
From the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew something was different about her. Perhaps because, for the first time, I had crossed paths with a creature that didn’t just fall at my feet. She didn’t just want to fuck me, she didn’t even want me, and as screwed up as it sounds, it turned me on more than I wanted to admit.
But it’s not just that anymore. I’m becoming possessive. I want to kiss her, let her bite my lip again, push me around, and that is not like me at all. I don’t know where this feeling is coming from, other than maybe it’s just her. Her feistiness, her beauty, and those goddamn gorgeous eyes of hers that carry so much pain I swear it feels like I’m looking into a mirror.
And that’s really the thing, isn’t it? What Hadley doesn’t realize yet, but it’s starting to click in me. She might not have not been around for as long as we have, and she may have just learned she wasn’t human, but she’s suffered like us, from creatures that were supposed to take care of her. Abandonment, betrayal, loss—we’re all familiar with it, and so is she. And it makes me want to climb into that bed, seal my lips to hers, and force her not to wither away. But I also don’t want her to loathe me forever either, which may be selfish. Or not … I’m not quite sure.
“I don’t know,” I answer.
I sit down on the bed, my gaze never wavering from Hadley, all sprawled out on my bed, her wild, wavy locks of brown hair surrounding her head like a halo. Her full lips are parted, and fuck, all I can think about is kissing her. “Is it better for us to just let her fade into ash or save her and suffer through her wrath? I mean, it seems sort of selfish not to save her just because we don’t want her to be mad at us.”