Page 74 of Hallowed Eve (The Obsidian Brotherhood 2)

I dropped down beside him, wanting to hold him, needing to comfort him. I wrapped my arms around him, wishing we could both disappear into the sand beneath our knees.

He flinched at my touch. His hands fell to his side, then he lifted his head and looked over at me. “Did you fuck him? Did you like it? Did he hurt you?” There was so much pain in his voice as the words rushed out. I just wanted to take it all away.

Oh, god.Not this. Anything but this. “No.”

“No? I asked three questions, Songbird. Which one isno?”

I felt like I was going to be sick. Why couldn’t Grey just stay at his own house, in his own room, minding his own business? I didn’t need him to watch over me. I needed time to handle things in my own way. Not like this.

I hated Grey in this moment. I hated myself for ever wanting him. Mostly, I hated the goddamn Brotherhood for doing this to all of us.

My heart splintered in my wide-open chest. I stared at Lincoln, watching the way the moonlight sharpened his features. The first boy I ever loved. The last man I’d ever want. The heart I was destined to break. “He didn’t hurt me.”

He sank both hands into his hair, tugging on the ends as he looked up at the sky. The veins in his neck looked strained and angry. His lips moved in silence as he closed his eyes. A prayer, maybe. A mantra. A plea for strength.

The wind picked up, pushing the waves to the shore angrier than before.

And then he moved his gaze to mine. His eyes glossed over with unshed tears. His face was twisted in torment. But my god, he was beautiful. And my heart was thrashing in my chest because all I wanted to do was fix him, fixthis. It felt like we were two threads of the same cloth and someone was tugging and pulling and tearing us apart.

For a moment, we were still, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, we weren’t as broken as we seemed.

Then Lincoln dropped his hands and looked at Grey. His breath came hard and heavy, and his voice was calm—much calmer than his appearance. “I’m going to slice off your fingers for touching her, rip out your tongue for tasting her, and cut your dick off, then shove it up your ass for thinking you had the right to fuck her.” He jumped to his feet and closed the distance between himself and Grey within seconds. “I. Will. End. You.” Then he shoved him to the ground.

Lincoln got one solid hit in before Grey flipped him over, then shoved his face into the sand. His fingers fisted in Lincoln’s hair as he straddled his back and shoved harder, making it impossible for him to breathe.

I ran across the sand and pulled at the back of Grey’s shirt. “You’re going to kill him!”

He didn’t budge.

Lincoln reared back his elbow and hit Grey in the nose, immediately covering his mouth and chin in a trail of blood. Then he repeated the action, hitting Grey on the cheekbone this time. Grey didn’t even flinch as the blow split his skin.

I was screaming. My heart was racing. I never wanted this to happen. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Caspian came from behind me with Tatum at his side. He hooked his arm around Grey’s neck, wrenching his body off Lincoln’s. The two of them tumbled to the ground, then onto their backs. Tatum rushed to Caspian’s side, and I ran to Lincoln.

He rolled over, coughing as I brushed sand off his face.

Tatum’s gentle voice broke the silence. “Lincoln? What is going on out here?” Her gaze cut from his face to mine. “Lyric?”

We all slowly rose to our feet, glancing from one person to the next, no one speaking.

Lincoln’s chest heaved with every breath as his eyes met mine. His hair and chest were covered in sand that he didn’t bother dusting off. Then he walked right past me and the look he gave me ripped my heart into pieces. “You wanna know? Ask her.”

“You’re better off with me,” Grey said as he wiped his bloody nose with the front of his hand. A trail of crimson painted his skin. “He’s not good for you.”

“And you are?” I walked over to him, stopping when we were toe to toe. “You leave me alone for days at a time. I eat alone. I spend my days alone. I sleep alone.” My voice raised with every word. It was all too much. I was on the verge of breaking. I was standing on the outskirts of madness and despair. Truth be told, I’d been walking that line since the moment I was shoved into the backseat of his car. “You think you’re doing me a favor? You think you’re beingnoble?” A single tear fell over my cheek, and I angrily wiped it away. “It’s fucking cruel, Grey.” I looked up at him, blinking back any more tears because I refused to let myself cry. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Lincoln might be impulsive but the one thing he would never be is cruel.”

“Lyric?”

Tatum.

I closed my eyes and inhaled, then turned to face her. Caspian circled his arm around her waist and pulled her close.

“Easy, Cujo. I’m her best friend, remember? I can handle this.”

“Like you handled that,” he said, pointing at the ground where Lincoln and Grey were just a second ago.

“Can we talk?” I asked Tatum. “Alone,” I added with a glare toward Caspian.

She held a hand against his chest and looked up at him with a nod of her head. “I’m okay.”

He kissed her forehead, then walked side-by-side with Grey toward the house.

Tatum watched him walk away for a moment, then turned her focus to me. Her voice was harsh, and there was a flash of pain in her usually bright eyes. “We can probably just skip to the part where you tell me you fucked my brother.”

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