Page 150 of When Death Whispers

Is he serious? I honestly can’t tell. “Would you need one?” I ask, lifting a brow, more in surprise than anything else at this point.

His head tilts. “No.”

I swallow my fear down.

Rad takes a deep inhale then snorts. “Realms help us.”

I take a long sip to distract myself. “I mean, I’m just saying, Steo and I should probably address the fact that he tried to kill me... multiple times.”

The shadow monster doesn’t respond at first but I can clearly feel a possessive anger strumming that isn’t mine.

Then, quietly: “You touched what was mine.”

My throat tightens, but I don’t look away, because we are now linked, tethered, and there is no way I’m not going to claim my place in this weird little fucked up circle we now form, if not for my own sake then for Parker’s. Definitely not leaving her to navigate all this with these two alone. That’s fucking fact. So I say, “I didn’t know she was yours.”

“You do now.”

“Do you?” I counter.

That lands.

Rad stops pacing.

Steo’s shadows still.

I set the mug down. “She chose all of us. You get that, right? She didn’t pickjustyou. She didn’t pickjustme. She tied herself to all three of us.”

“She is not a prize,” Steo replies, voice low.

“I never said she was. But you keep talking like you’re the only one who bleeds for her.”

That earns me silence. But there is no mistaking what is buzzing between all of us, through our link, our bond. And it surprises me. It’s respect, and acceptance.

Then Rad mutters, “Finally. A real conversation. I was about to start biting people just to break the tension.”

My lips twitch despite myself. The nightmare demon is growing on me, dammit.

Steo shifts slightly. “I have only ever known how to protect through power. Through fear. Through death. But she... teaches differently.”

That’s… not what I expected for him to say. I blink. “Wait. Are you admitting you were wrong?”

“I am admitting,” he says slowly, “that I did not understand.”

That lands heavier than he intended.

I nod. “Well. I didn’t understand either. I thought I was the one keeping her alive. Turns out she’s the one keeping us.”

Rad folds his arms, quiet determination coming off of him. “She always was.”

“And you,” I glance over at him. “You’ve thrown more punches at Steo than I have. Are we good now, or do I need to build a fight pit?”

Rad shrugs. “I’m good. I just didn’t want her tethered to something that didn’t deserve her. Now... I’m not so sure she didn’t tame the beast.”

Steo’s shadows twitch. He doesn’t refute it.

I laugh under my breath. “Fuck, we’re going to need rules.”

“We’ll break them anyway,” Rad says.

---