Page 97 of Rise of the Siren Queen
That fucker Lorenzo—just thinking his name made my jaw tighten. The way he stared at her was like she was a prize he could win, like she was born on this earth to betaken.It lit a fire in me I didn’t bother to extinguish. I didn’t enjoy sharing. Not glances, not intentions, and definitely not her.
She wasn’t his to look at.
A sick heat coiled in my gut at the memory, twisting tighter with every step. My hands clenched and unclenched at my sides, itching for violence I couldn’t justify. Not yet. But one misstep from him, one wrong word, and I’d gladly bury that smug bastard six feet under with a smile on my face.
And the worst part? A small, selfish part of me was relieved she was leaving soon. Safe, far away from scum like him. Away from all of this. Even though the thought of her being gone, of not hearing her voice, not touching her skin, gnawed at something deep and raw inside me.
But I’d rather ache than see her hunted.
Let the whole damn world come for her. I’d tear it apart before I let them have her. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her.
“Who were they?” Iryen’s voice was soft as I passed her the helmet, but there was a firmness beneath it, demanding answers, and the irony wasn’t lost on me. Before, I was the one demanding answers—hell, I still am—but the way she held her ground out there earned her some truth.
I exhaled sharply, fingers dragging through my hair as if I could claw the frustration out of my skull. I turned to her, eyes lingering on every line of her face as if it might anchor me, like it might stop me from going back inside and doing something irreversible.
This wasn’t how lunch was supposed to go.
I hadn’t envisioned blood boiling under my skin or ghosts clawing out of the past like vultures circling. No, I’d imagined her, just her. Smiling. Relaxed. Ourselves, if only for a fleeting moment. A damn date. Simple. Human. A rare breath of peace in the chaos we call life.
But that went to hell the secondtheyshowed up.
My ex. My former best friend. A pair of walking betrayals dressed like people I used to know. Of course, they would choosetodayto resurface, to drag their poison-stained history right into the middle of something I actually gave a damn about.
I clenched my jaw, the familiar burn of old wounds reopening beneath my ribs. I hadn’t asked for redemption, but I’d wantedthis. Her. Just a night without war, without weight. And they took it from me, likethey always did.
I looked at her again, and the rage dulled, leaving only that gnawing edge of desperation and desire. I wanted to forget. Wanted to take her far from all this and never look back.
But I knew better.
“Lorenzo,” I started, the name rotting on my tongue like it never should’ve belonged there, “was someone I used to call a friend. Closest thing I had to a brother.”
The words scraped out like glass. “We grew up side by side, carved through the same circles. I trusted him with things I didn’t even admit to myself—my doubts, my ambition, the parts of me that didn’t fit the world I was born into. He knew everything.”
Iryen stepped closer. Silent. Steady. Her gaze locked onto mine like she already sensed the shadow behind the words.
I almost stopped there. Almost.
“He betrayed me.”
The words landed hard, heavier every time I said aloud. I swallowed down the bitterness clawing up my throat.
“And the woman… with him. Sophia.”
I watched her face, not out of paranoia, but because I needed to know. Needed to see if she flinched. If any part of her recoiled from the jagged ruin of who I’d been.
“She wasn’t just a passing thing. I thought…”
My jaw clenched.
“She was mine.”
A flicker. I caught it, the flicker in Iryen’s eyes. Barely there, but real. The shift from passive to poised. Then it vanished behind that perfectly practiced calm. But I’d seen it. And some feral, dark corner of me relaxed, just slightly. Shefeltsomething. Shecared.
“Sophia and I were together for nearly two years. I was going to ask her to marry me. The ring hid in my drawer.”
The silence was suffocating.
“I came home early from a trip. Stupid, really. Wanted to surprise her. And I did.” I scoffed under my breath. It sounded like someone else’s laugh. “They were in my bed. Him and her. Like it was theirs. Like I never existed.”
