Page 115 of Darling Wildfire
I caught a glimpse of Nyx’s face as he went to walk away and I grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t you dare feel guilty,” I growled at him, looking up at his haunted face. “Make no mistake—there is nothing I won’t do to survive this,” I said fiercely, my composure cracking. “He can try to break me—fuck, he might even succeed at some point—but his greatest regret will be keeping me alive, because when I get out of here, I’m going to take it all down.”
57
NYX
The next day, we were all hurting. My chest was killing me and when it was time to go outside, we all stiffly went out and sat on the lawn. The two new guys kept to themselves, I’d finally learned their names—Vance and Ridley. Kane said they’d held their own and weren’t a bunch of careless bitches—his exact words. They were currently walking the track in the distance. I turned to see Atlas watching me.
“I’m fine—” I sighed.
“You died,” Atlas hissed, and I saw some emotion flicker in his eyes before it disappeared into the anger that took over.
“North brought me back to life with his kiss, I’m fine, seriously,” I joked.
Atlas shook his head and with a growl stood up and abruptly stormed off.
“What’s with him?” I asked.
I watched Atlas walk away and turned and saw North giving me a level look like he knew exactly what was going on. I didn’t even know what was going on.
“He was really upset yesterday,” North said.
“Yeah? Well, I don’t really enjoy his close calls either,” I grumbled.
Preacher chuckled, seeming to catch on to something I still wasn’t sure I was understanding. Was Atlas concerned as a friend or something else? What did that even mean?
“Fuck both of you,” I grumbled. Shame from my time with Vetticus rose, and I stood up, needing to move. I walked off in the opposite direction of Atlas and threw myself down under the only tree that was inside the fenced area. I pulled up grass and shredded it between my fingers as I let myself carefully think about Atlas.
He was handsome, no denying that even objectively. Did I feel more? I couldn’t forget the energy we’d shared a few times, most recently with Red between us, but there were also times during the games where the blood lust danced with something else just as feral and wild.
Whatever this was—if it even was anything—needed to be pushed down for now.
I trusted Atlas with my life and that’s where it would stay. I couldn’t afford to be weak here and that included catching feelings for my best friend.
Some time later, I saw North approach, and he gingerly lowered himself down next to me, leaning against the trunk of the tree. He tipped his head back and closed his eyes, not saying anything for a long moment.
“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked.
I sighed. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
North was quiet for a beat. “I think we should try to escape soon.”
“You have a plan?”
“We take out the cameras during the game, cut out the trackers—run far away.”
“That’s it? You make it sound easy.”
I heard him smile. “Simple, not easy. I don’t even know where in the world we are, do you?”
I shook my head. “Not a clue.”
Despite what he’d said last night, I still felt guilty for having him take the fall for the loss. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know how to word it without him getting pissed off.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, turning the question on him.
He fixed me with a look. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
