Page 67 of The Circus

I glance at him, his eyes warm swimming pools of lust that I want to sink into and drown.

“Binx can be a guide to the spirits here. I’m sure he plays with them out in the cemetery. You liked the mausoleum?”

He smirks.

“Of course I did. Have some…Cask of Amontilladoplans for the future, I think.”

I roll my eyes but press a kiss to Binx’s warm, fuzzy head. “I knew you would. You can’t actually be related to Poe, though. He never had kids.”

He snorts and gently plucks Binx from his resting spot on my chest, leaning over me to set him on the ground. The kitten meows and bats at a dried up bug carcass on the aged wood floors, content to explore. Teddy grips my chin, bringing my attention back to him as he hovers above me, his lithe, muscled bodied tensed as if to strike as he lays himself half on top of me. My cheeks burn, and that’s all it takes, this simple movement of him above me for my core to clench in agony at not having him inside me for almost a week.

“My mom did our ancestry. Traced it back to Poe’s family. We are related, just not directly.”

“Of all the people to be related to, I think he’s the most fitting,” I tease. He flashes me a toothy grin, his canines biting, desire swirling in his searing gaze. Wherever his eyes grace my flesh, it leaves a burning trail of yearning behind.

But his smile simmers, and his eyes begin to darken again, and I know where his mind has gone before he even speaks. My stomach curls up and withers, my mouth dry as dirt during a drought. I don’t like discussing my past, hence why I’ve never told anyone.

Anyonealive, that is.

He brushes his thumb over my chin tenderly, eyes tracing every facet of my face. “Eden…have I ever done anything to…to trigger those emotions from your past?”

I melt beneath him, because I have a feeling no other person would be as thoughtful or caring after such a heavy topic was dropped on their lap. Smiling softly, I shake my head and reach up, my fingers curling around the hand that still holds my chin.He’s so warm and strong and sturdy, my anchor in a raging storm that keeps me tethered to this world.

“No,” I whisper. “No. When I’m with you…it all goes away. That’s why I used to come here so much by myself. This place gives me the same sort of…peace. Release. I don’t think about it here, and I don’t think about it when I’m with you.”

His eyes beam with pride, and he tempers his smile.

“You make me feel the same.”

“Good,” I quip back, squeezing his fingers. He chuckles, brushing them up the side of my face before sinking them into my hair.

“I know…know how it feels, to be powerless in a situation like that,” he whispers, his face clouding over. My heart sinks, and my lips part, but he beats me to it. “Remember that prank a few years ago, Brant and his friends put fish in my locker?”

How could I forget? I’d never witnessed rage so violent before, watching Teddy pummel the kid to a bloody pulp in the hallway before first period. It had honestly frightened me, the way his eyes had gone dark, but I understand it better, now. He was holding back, because he could've easily killed the kid. I nod solemnly. He continues on, and I can hear how the words stick in his throat.

“Miss Goss used that to…blackmail me, I guess. She…well, she took my virginity. In her office. Told me she’d have me sent to juvie if I didn’t do it. And she’s found ways for it to keep happening, for years.”

Tears brim my eyelids, and I feel sick enough to vomit. My skin is cold at his words and all they mean. Yes, Teddy may understand me in this realm, but I’ll never understand what it’s like to see your abuser day after day, to feel so stuck in a situation that you have to do anything you can to survive.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper. He gives me a wan smile and brushes his thumb over my cheek.

“It’s not okay, and what happened to you is not okay. But…if all the bad I’ve had to endure so far in life has led me to you, then I’d do it all again. Happily.”

I smile, a few more tears spilling over and trickling down the sides of my face. His keen eyes watch them, and he catches one with the pad of his thumb, brushing it away.

“Me, too,” I say back with conviction. “What…what do the voices think of…of her?”

I’m scared to ask the question, but far too intrigued by the possible answer to keep it locked behind my teeth.

He tilts his head back and laughs, the sound dark yet rich. When his eyes find mine again, they’re blazing with barely contained fury and malice and a touch of madness that fights to take over. It doesn’t frighten me, because I know I’m a little insane, too. We’re meant to be, craziness and all.

“They have a date set for her. She’s going to regret everything and have…plenty of time to ponder her actions, before she dies.”

I swallow hard at how easily he admits he’s about to murder someone, but I also know there’s nothing I could ever do to stop him, not that I would try. My only worry is him getting caught, ending up in jail or on death row for all the lives he’s slaughtered.

But if I were given the chance to kill Malachi Moreau, my abuser?

I would without a second of hesitation. The fact that Miss Goss has hurt someone I love sinks into my soul and festers like a rotting wound. I understand Teddy’s fury at hearing my story, because he ismineand I am his, and no one will ever touch either of us again.

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