Page 27 of Obliterated
Thatnight,whenIcreep into his room after filing my report back at the Watcher’s castle, the balcony door’s already open. Waiting.
And there’s something new.
An old, ratty armchair, shoved into the corner next to his dresser and the balcony door. A big one. A blanket folded carefully over the armrest, like someone thought of me. Like he knew I’d come.
And fuck it, if my black heart—dead, cracked, whatever’s left of it—doesn’t stumble in my chest at the sight. Because no one’s ever left a space for me before. Not until him. Not once in all the blood and ruin of this life has anyone looked at me and thought:stay.
So I do.
I stay.
Chapter seven
Kieran
Somethingshiftedafterourvisit to the marketplace.
After I saw him slay those Walkers like it was nothing, bloodlust rolling off him in waves, as if he belonged to the storm itself.
After I stitched him up in the bathroom of that little shop, close enough to trace the map of scars across his skin, scars that speak louder than he ever will.
After he touched me and that bloodlust in his gaze changed into lust… minus the blood.
I’m not blind. I’m not an idiot. I know what this is. Thisattractionbetween us.
He scares the shit out of everyone who gets too close.
But he’s not like that with me.
I’ve seen the way his mouth softens, the way his shoulders finally drop when he lets me near. Every time I think I’ve figured him out, something shifts again, and I end up looking harder, longer, like if I collect enough scraps I’ll finally piece him together.
And maybe that’s what this investigation is for me, besides being a way out of my fate… it’s an excuse. To keep him close. To keep feeling the pull I swore to myself I wouldn’t act on.
We’ve been researching for a while now, and we could’ve done more.Icould’ve done more. Pressed harder, questioned more people, maybe even broken into the hotel offices with some medical excuse.
But maybe I don’t want this investigation to be over just yet. I really want my freedom, but then what? Even if getting rid of Joyeus iseverything, it also leaves me withnothing.
I… like it here. I like hanging out with his friends Tass and Sami, even though he insists on calling the latter a colleague. I like my job behind the bar. I even like my little room in this former hotel… even if it’s nothing more than a bed and a dresser… and now also a chair.
It’s still mine. Sort off.
If it weren’t for Joyeus hanging over my head, I’d almost call this a life.Mylife. A life that’s maybe, finally, worth living.
Joyeus. She’s always there. Hovering in the back of my mind like a shadow I can’t shake. But it’s not her that occupies most of my thoughts. It’s him.
Always him. That shadow in the corner of the room, eyes on me even when I close mine.
There’s a beauty in the cruel reality of Max… the way he moves, the way he fights, the way he leaves Walkers in pieces. That day… something did shift. The way he watched me. The way I held his face. The way that slash of a mouth softened when he touched my lips, thumb rubbing back and forth, back and forth, like he couldn’t stop himself.
I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. I don’t know why I care. I don’t know whyhecares.
All I know is he’s fucking up my plans.
My plans to get out of this safely… which might be a lie anyway, because he already handed me the best plan: find out what Joyeus is doing, and I get my freedom. Simple as that.
Only nothing about him is simple.
The last time we spoke to each other was in that bathroom. But I know he was with me after. I know he spent the night, even though he was gone in the morning.
