Page 23 of Break Her Heart
August gestured to the last man, who sat slightly apart from the others, his posture withdrawn but not unsure. “That is Benedict.”
Benedict had dark, shoulder-length hair that fell like a curtain, half-concealing his sharp, pale features. His eyes were shadowed, as though he was always somewhere else in his mind. He didn’t radiate menace the way the others did. Instead, he carried the quiet presence of someone who had never quite belonged here but stayed anyway. Where the others wore their roles like finely tailored clothes, Benedict seemed untouchedby it all. Like he existed on the edges of their world, always observing, never partaking.
August grabbed my hand, his grip firm, and led me down the long stretch of table. We passed his siblings, who parted only just enough to let us through, their eyes following us like hawks tracking prey. Then, in a blur of motion, they vanished from our path—appearing at their seats in flashes of movement too fast for human eyes to follow. The sudden shift made the candle flames tremble.
As August took the head of the table, the room seemed to settle, the tension strung tight like a bow. It was clear that this was his place, whether they liked it or not. And by the stiff posture of his siblings, they didn’t.
“What? You might as well get used to seeing your brother here. If Carrow’s lucky, he will be in this body for a millennia.”
They exchanged glances, but August ignored them. Halston lingered near the kitchen doors, his posture careful, his gaze fixed uncomfortably on me.
“You are dismissed, Halston,” August said, draping a napkin across his lap.
Halston’s eyes snapped away from me as if waking from a trance, darting to August instead. Flustered, he dipped his head quickly. “Yes, Your Grace,” he muttered before hurrying out.
August grabbed a plate of meat and started piling it on my plate. “You need to eat,” he muttered.
“How endearing.” Simon glanced toward us, smiling as he studied me.
August shot him a glare, and Simon only chuckled under his breath before shaking his head and dropping his gaze to the food in front of him. The other siblings had already started eating—forks and knives cutting silently through rare, barely cooked meats. Their conversation flowed easily now, fluid and dismissive, like we weren’t even at the table.
Lavina was telling some sordid story about her latest hunt, her laughter sharp and glittering like broken glass. Simon interrupted with a crude joke that made Corwin roll his eyes and mutter something under his breath about decorum. Benedict sat silent, methodically dissecting his food with surgical precision, occasionally glancing at the rest of them with thinly veiled disdain.
At one point, Lavina snapped at Corwin for correcting her. Simon mocked them both with a lazy toast, while Benedict kept his head down, clearly tired of it all.
For the longest time, none of them looked at August. None of them acknowledged him—or me.
It was like we were ghosts at their feast.
Then, Lavina leaned forward. “Did you live in town?”
There was a long moment of silence before I realized everyone was looking at me.
I straightened. “A little outside of it.”
“Siblings?”
“A brother.”
“And your parents?”
I paused for a moment, trying my best to not show the despair that wanted to desperately come out at the mention of them. “Dead.”
“Oh, a poor orphan girl. How sweet of Augustus to bring you in.”
I clenched my fists under the table.Breathe.
“You know,” Simon cut through the conversation. “You smell oddly familiar.”
“Maybe it’s because your brother had his hands all over me right before we came in here.”
He let out a loud laugh. “Do you enjoy that? Having something so dangerous be so…obsessedwith you?”
“Not as much as I enjoy having my hand wrapped around his throat,” I said before I could stop myself, but I didn’t regret it. I was tired of being quiet. Tired of being told to behave. The look of frustration that twitched across August’s face only made me smile. If it made his life harder, good. I wasn’t here to make things easy for him.
The room stilled for a beat, and then something like amusement flickered across Lavina’s sharp smile. Corwin raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued, while Benedict actually glanced up from his plate for the first time.
Simon gave a delighted laugh, clapping his hands once.
