Page 86 of Emperor of Wrath

“Hey! I’m still talking!” I spit at him. “I’m a grown fucking woman, and I am not going to just be sent?—”

“Annika.”

Kir’s smiling as he looks up at me from the screen.

“Damian is awake.”

“Fuck me.”

I sigh, grinning as I roll my eyes.

“First of all, I’m flattered, but I just don’t think of you that way?”

The doctors are only letting us in one at a time to see Damian. Kir pulled rank and went in first. Freya and I played rock-paper-scissors for second, and I lost. But here I am, finally seeing him.

He looks…well, like he’s been shot. He’s a little gaunter than usual, having been lying in a hospital bed for a few weeks instead of spending half of each day at the gym. But he still looks like the Damian I love.

Plus, he’s alive.

He grimaces and shoots me a look. “Don’t be gross, Anni.”

I grin. “Well, and I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m a married woman these days.”

A shadow crosses Damian’s face, his lavender eyes darkening.

“I fucking hate that you had to do that because of me.”

I scowl as I punch him playfully in the arm. “Shut the fuck up.”

“Okay, ow?” He rubs his arm. “Remember the part where I got fucking shot?”

“Sorry,” I quip. “I’ll hold back on the punching.”

“Yeah, could you?” he mutters, a small smile on his lips. He exhales and reaches up to run his fingers through his white hair. “Fucking hell. I wake up from one goddamn fight to find you married to Kenzo?”

I smile wryly, looking away.

I refuse to let my mind drift to the events of last night.

Or this morning.

“It’s not your fault, Damian.”

He shakes his head. “I… Fuck, I don’t know, Anni. I mean, Aoki drew first, I’ll say that.”

“Damian—”

“But maybe if I’d just winged him instead of killing him?” He grits his teeth. “Or if I hadn’t even been at the club for that meeting?—”

“Damian,” I hiss sharply. “It is what it is, okay? You know me and dwelling on the past.”

He smiles wryly. “What’s done is done.”

“Exactly.”

He grimaces. “I still fucking hate that you had to get married and I wasn’t even there to cause a scene and tell Kenzo to go eat a bag of dicks.”

“No time like the present…”

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