ログインChapter 89Aurelia A few heads turned my way, mildly curious.Dreylen, standing a few feet off with a glass of something dark in his hand, went very still."The four figures," I went on, before anyone could answer for him. "Do they represent you and your brothers? If so, I'm curious. Why are they kneeling to her?" I looked straight at him when I asked it. "Would you mind explaining?"The room, which had been humming with low conversation a second before, went completely quiet.Dreylen didn't look at me. He looked at the painting instead, his jaw working once before he went still again, and for three full seconds nobody said a single word.I smiled wider, let a little apology slide into my voice, sweet enough to sound harmless. "I'm sorry. Forget I asked. Maybe I hit a nerve.""You did." He shook his head slowly, still not looking at me. "But not the way you think."He set his glass down on the small table beside him, slow and deliberate, and turned to face the room instead of me."
Chapter 88AureliaI told myself, the whole drive to the dinner, that I already knew exactly how this would go.I'd walk in. He'd see me. Whatever mask he'd built for himself over the last five years would crack for half a second before he caught it, the way it had with Dreyven in that garage, the way it had with Dreyden in that hall, also the way it had with Dreyton in that club and in that half second I'd finally get the thing I'd come there for.I was wrong within about ten seconds of walking through the door.He saw me the second I stepped past the check-in table. I know he did, because his gaze moved straight to me and held there, no wandering, no searching the room first the way people do when they're not sure what they're looking for. He knew exactly who he was looking at.And nothing on his face moved.No shock. No flicker of the boy I expecting. He looked at me, and went right back to the conversation he was having with an older couple in front of one of his canvases.He didn
Chapter 86AureliaSienna let herself into my flat a little after nine the next morning, the way she always did when she decided knocking was a waste of both our time, and found me still sitting on the couch in last night's dress with a cold cup of coffee going untouched on the table in front of me."Well," she said, dropping her bag by the door and taking one long look at me. "You look like you lost a fight.""I didn't lose anything.""Didn't say you lost. Said you look like you were in one." She crossed the room, picked up the cold coffee without asking, and dumped it down the kitchen sink before starting a fresh pot like she owned the place. "How'd it go with Dreyden?"I thought about giving her the short version. The one where I walked into that briefing, said three sentences to the man, and walked back out again with my dignity fully intact.That version wasn't a lie, exactly. It just wasn't the whole truth either."He asked if I was okay," I said instead, watching the coffee mak
Chapter 86DreylenI've spent my whole life learning to read a room without anyone catching me at it. Standing at those ropes that night, watching my brother take shot after shot from a man built to hurt people for a living, I read this one easy enough.Nobody here was going to stop it on their own.Drayton wouldn't, because some stubborn, loyal part of him thought letting Dreyden take a beating was the same thing as letting him grieve properly. Dreyven wouldn't, because he'd gone somewhere quiet behind his own eyes the second he said her name, somewhere none of us could follow him to. And Dreyden sure wasn't going to stop himself, not when getting hit again and again seemed to be the only thing actually working.That left me. It usually did.I'm not built like the rest of them. I don't fix things with my fists, and I don't fix things by taking charge of a room either. What I do is notice, quietly, from a few steps back, until noticing turns into something I can't just sit on anym
Chapter 84Drayton"Hold up, Drey," I shouted, stepping right between him and Dave before my main sparring partner could even get his hands raised.Because there was no way in hell I was letting my brother go bare-knuckle against a guy who hit heavy bags for a living in my gym.Dreyden didn't even look at me, his eyes locked onto Dave’s chest like he was staring right through the man, and he muttered under his breath, "I don't care about gloves, Drayton, just let him hit me.""I'm not letting anybody break your jaw," I grunted, grabbing a pair of grey sixteen-ounce training gloves off the turnbuckle and shoving them hard against his soaked chest, adding, "Put 'em on, or you can walk right back out that door you just shoved open."Dreyden took the gloves without saying another word, his hands shaking so violently he could barely shove his fingers into the leather.So I reached over, yanked the velcro straps tight around his wrists, and felt how cold his skin was while his pulse hamme
Chapter 84Dreyden The gym sat on the edge of the warehouse district, a squat brick building with Drayton's name hung over the door in metal letters, put up the year he turned pro. Even from the parking lot, I could hear the dull, steady thud of leather hitting canvas coming from somewhere inside.I parked crooked and didn't bother straightening it out. I walked in already working the buttons of my shirt loose with one hand, my jacket left behind on the passenger seat where I'd thrown it without thinking twice.The place smelled the way it always smelled, sweat and leather and the sharp chemical bite of whatever they used to mop the floors every night. Under the bright fluorescent lights, two men were still working. One threw punches at a heavy bag near the far wall. The other shadowboxed in front of a long mirror, moving with the kind of ease you only get from doing something ten thousand times over.I peeled my shirt the rest of the way off as I crossed the floor, folded it once







