Page 163 of Phoenix Rise

“Are you looking at my junk?” His mouth twitched.

I held my hands up. “Just a suggestion.”

“Well, if you’re done admiring, I have something to say.”

I hadn’t retracted my wings, and now they spread reflexively.

“Hey, I listened to you, and I’m spitting dirt. So now, you are going to listen to me.”

Well, I had promised that. But any trace of humor had fled his face, which made my stomach clench.

His eyes flared emerald as he met my own. “I know you’ve been through hell, mate. I only got a glimpse—can’t stonkin’ imagine everything that bitch did to you. But I need you to shelve it.Weneed you to shelve it.”

I gritted my teeth. “I can’t do that.”

Matt’s face twisted. “You don’t understand. Sebastian is dying.”

I nodded. “I know. I saw him, remember?”

His green eyes darkened. “If he dies, Anna—” he broke off, and the pain that surged through the link robbed me of breath.

“She’ll be okay,” I said quickly.

He ground his teeth together, and his eyes flared. “Do you want her?” he asked.

My heart twisted as my answer burst from me, unbidden, powerful, surging along the link.

“Then claim her.” He was almost pleading now.

I shook my head. “She has you.”

“It’s not enough, mate.I’mnot enough.”

“Surely you don’t want me as part of what you two share.”

He swallowed, and when he continued, his voice was rough with emotion. “You don’t understand. I can’t save her this time. She’s coming undone, I can feel it. Fate intends us to be together. Anna, me, you, and the Bellati. Without that—I am not going to be enough.”

I breathed so hard I almost panted. The faces burst free from the cracked walls, their eyes dark and accusing. I shoved them back, but they didn’t go far.

“She doesn’t need me,” I gasped. “I’m damaged. Unworthy.”

His eyes flared. “Are you not hearing me? She is the judge of who is worthy. And she wants you. Sheneedsyou. Like she needs air to breathe.”

I hid my panic beneath a glare. His rage and fear scorched along the link.

When I refused to respond, he flung his hands in the air. “Do what you bloody well want. While you’ve been sunk in your dodgy, self-focused thoughts, she’s been suffering. She let you go, despite it. Knowing that you needed to run. But this time, if you fly away—I want you to know that you don’t live in a bleedin’ vacuum, mate. You take a piece of us, everywhere that you go.”

“I can’t stay.” I barely recognized my own voice.

“Fine. If you fly away now, don’t come back. Because there won’t be anything left here for you.”

In that instant, my own fear transformed into rage. “I’d be long gone if it weren’t for you yakking in my head!”

He spun on me, his eyes igniting, with gold almost overlaying the green. “Well, I won’t be blabbing at you again.”

Then he turned and stalked away, vanishing into the trees.

I shook all over. As though he’d stuck his talons inside me, and ripped them free...

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