Page 38 of Where We Ended

“Fuck, who’s attacking us?” Alec murmured under his breath, scanning the counters for something. I saw Rachel huddling down on the ground, near the pantry with a wild look of terror in her eyes. She looked up as we entered, and then slowly stood.

“It started ten minutes ago, but Fable isn’t here. I have no idea where he went…he was just gone when I woke up, and now we’re being attacked.”

Alec slammed another drawer closed, cursing. I was close enough that I could slide a knife free from the drying rack. I had to be slow about it, as to not alert him. I waited until his head was turned and reached, but I must have overestimated his peripheral vision because once he realized what I was doing, he pulled me close, so my free hand was now locked in his.

“We need to get out of here.”

I wouldn’t slip through the cracks and be held hostage again. I couldn’t. Whoever was attacking had to mean my freedom. Somehow, someway.

I tried to push against Alec again. “Let me go!”

He held tighter.

“Rachel, help me. Please, we can take him if we both just…” Tears burned my eyes, and I must have looked wild and unhinged because I began tearing at Alec’s skin, scratching and marking as I screamed for him to let me go.

Rachel moved toward me, but with one look from Alec, she closed her eyes and began rubbing at her wrists until her back was against the wall. She obviously had endured some sort of torture or abuse. My heart was a wounded, panicked thing. I knew she was struggling but I needed her help. I was desperate for her to use this one chance to free us both.

A loud scream came from outside the exterior kitchen door, accompanied by a gunshot. I jolted with how close it came, making my footing slip and my back land into Alec’s chest. It allowed him to get a more secure hold on my hips, but before I could even try to start fighting him again, the door slammed open.

Brightness flooded the kitchen; I couldn’t make out who had stepped in, but I heard their voice, and it was a familiar echo, a soothing, dark caress over my heart.

“Caelum,” was rasped and broken, like he’d finally found the one thing on this planet that was precious to him.

You could only fight monsters with bigger monsters; my heart belonged to the worst one I knew of.

I gave a tiny sob as Alec pulled me backward, making my feet slip out from under me, but my eyes had finally adjusted as they landed on Silas. He was tall and so perfectly outlined by all the darkness in his heart that I nearly choked on my tears. He wore his leather cut, his hair a slash of black across his forehead, and his arms were swathed in dusky tattoos, all the way down to his fingers.

Trapped pieces of the moon stared back at me, a flicker of relief glimmering in them. Time seemed to stand still as we stared at each other, and I wondered what he saw as I stood in his brother’s arms, wearing his shirt. How I must look with my hair wild, frizzed and my bare legs on display as Alec tugged me farther into the kitchen. From Silas’s expression, it wasn’t good, and it worsened when his gaze dropped to my hand.

It was as though all the sound and sight had suddenly stilled and bled into one vibrant dark stroke of black. His eyes narrowed, and his jaw clenched so tight I thought it might break. He took a measured step forward, the gun dangling in his right hand, then it was tossed to the counter with a loud echo. Which told me that Silas had a much more violent punishment in mind for Alec than a simple bullet to the head.

“Brother, please do explain to me why the fuck you’ve cuffed yourself to my wife?”

Alec froze behind me.

I heard his small intake of breath and noticed mine had stalled in my chest too. Silas had never claimed me in such a manner, especially not in front of anyone. A fluttering sensation mixed with relief swelled inside me, even as I was being held by a monster. Even as I knew this was dangerous. Silas had swept it all away with one word.

Wife.

“Silas,” Alec stammered while we both watched the man known as The Roman procure a meat cleaver that was magnetized against the back wall.

“I’m going to allow you the chance to choose, Alec. I’ll either cut high enough so that tattoo of Artemis, which we all know you got for Natty, is removed from your body completely. Or you can lose your hand. Personally, I think you should choose the arm, make a big statement since that’s what you originally intended by getting this fucking piece, right?”

There was shuffling from near the back, and Rachel darted out of the room through the open door. I watched her go, wondering if Killian would find her.

Alec was slightly shaking, and I wasn’t even sure he noticed that his hold on me had gone slack. I left his arms and moved as far from him as possible, while our hands remained connected by the cuffs. I saw him eye the firearm that had been discarded on the counter, just a few feet from where I was standing.

There were veins protruding from Alec’s neck and forehead as he watched his brother slowly move around the counter in our direction. “Silas, let me expl?—”

“Choose!” Silas roared his eyes going wide, his lips twisting angrily. “Your hand or the tattoo you had created because of your obsession with my fucking wife!”

“I didn’t know you were married,” Alec stammered back.

Silas laughed. “You knew she was mine, Alec. She’s been mine from the first moment you saw her. Don’t pretend you didn’t know. Hand or arm?”

“Just fucking wait, let me talk to you about what Dad is doing. I can help you.” Alec tried to get Silas’s attention, but he was already in front of me, blocking my view, facing his brother. Nowhere for him to go.

“I’m losing my patience and the longer you’re cuffed to my wife, the more violent my thoughts are becoming.”

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