Page 144 of Nemesis

“But with a twist.” He offers me a vicious smile. “I hope you know that this is just a safeguard. If they try to wake you up…”

He injects me with the next one. And before that even has time to root, there’s another.

It’s quick. Too quick. My body and mind separate, which is the strangest thing. I can only watch his face get closer to mine, until he’s practically nose to nose with me. He breathes in my shallow exhales, which no longer feel like mine.

He reaches up and drags my eyelids down, and, well, that’s the last I see.

40SAINT

Kade hasn’t stopped watchingme, and it’s getting on my last fucking nerve. He showed up about ten minutes after I got back to the condo. I planned on drinking myself into an oblivion and passing out.

Butno. He insisted we make dinner, saying that we hadn’t had a decent meal since the sandwiches he made for us after we showed up at his house. So, grudgingly, I let him raid the fridge and pantry and put together a meal worthy of a two-star diner.

Okay, fine, it was better than that.

Good, even.

He followed me to the gym.

To the fuckinggym.

Needless to say, it only wound me tighter instead of burning off the energy I desperately wanted to shed. By the time I was done, my body glistened with sweat.

I forced him to leave me alone long enough to shower, and that seemed like a small miracle. The door remained locked, although he knocked at the five-minute mark and demanded an answer.

Was my answer in the form of a string of curses? Maybe.

He deserved it, though.

Now, we sit across from each other in the living room, and it feels oddly familiar to sitting across from Reese. Except now, I’m not tempted to pull out the whiskey and make him answer questions. Mainly because the idea ofKadeprying into my life is infinitely more invasive.

If only he would stop staring.

“What?” I finally snap.

He sighs. “Are you suicidal?”

“What?” Hoarser, without the power behind it. I press my palms flat to my thighs. “Why are you asking me that?”

“It’s not a no,” he mutters.

“Fuck off.”

He rolls his eyes.

It clicks, then, that this was Artemis. Whether she was just trying to get him out of the hospital, or she really does think I’m going to do something that will end my life?—

My throat closes.

“Let’s talk about something else,” I manage. “Why are you looking for Reese?”

Kade eyes me and doesn’t answer.

Infuriating.

I’m not going to admit if I do or don’t want to kill myself. I think about it sometimes. I like to flirt with death. But over the last month or so, I’ve been… smiling.

Which is so strange, and completely at odds with the last year. Elora’s absence hasn’t been constantly pressing down on my shoulders. It’s only when I’m alone that I consider how she would be perceiving this.

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