Page 94 of Entangled

They both watch me silently, and my ears grow hot. I begin packing up, trying not to make it obvious that I’m rushing. But between Jasper watching me with clinical concern since they found me and my tense conversation with Dominic last night, I don’t particularly feel like lingering to see what new wave of awkwardness they plan on bringing.

“Eden, I wanted to?—”

“Oh, I’m just about packed now,” I say with forced cheer, slinging my pack hurriedly over my back. I don’t want to have another talk about myfeelings. Not with anyone. Especially not with Jasper. The last time I spoke to him about my feelings, I ended up crying at his feet. “We’d best be on our way, shouldn’t we? Don’t want to... lose the light.”

As if in mockery, the sun sleepily peeks between the trees, barely risen.

Jasper sets his cup to the side, and then stands, lifting a small black bag from beside him. He comes very close, close enough that I can smell toothpaste and chamomile, then places it in my hands.

“I wanted,” he repeats evenly, a quiet reproach in his gaze, “to provide you with some toiletries. So you might clean up, if you wished.”

Oh.

“Thank you,” I mutter, and then back up, retreating more quickly than grace would call for as I decide once and for all that it’s not them.

Iam the reason my life is so painfully awkward.

“You all almost ready to clear out? We’re gone in ten.”

I turn to see Heather walking toward us, a small, cheerful smile on her face. She’s wiping her bloody hands on a rag, and some of my nausea returns.

If Alastair and Mateo die, whatwillhappen to those captive women and children?

She bumps my shoulder, and Jasper moves to the far end of the log, his lips quirking in a moue of distaste. I don’t even want to see Dom’s reaction to her presence.

“You good?” Heather asks. Then she blinks, wrinkling her nose. “Girl, you reek of sex.”

Oh,God. Mortification floods me—again—but I drop a pointed look at her hands. “Was that really necessary?”

Heather examines her nails, then digs some blood out from one of them.

“Better than sex, honestly.” She sighs. “He bleeds so pretty. I haven’t been able to make him scream yet, but I’m working on it. I’m going to break him—he doesn’t understand yet that I’m in control, but he will. Just need to make sure I don’t accidentally kill him before I do.”

I stare at her, remembering my own rage, my own desire to kill. But my demon is tucked away now, sick and overfull on the deaths it demanded. Now I know my men are alive, I can think again—can push past any immediate, cheap satisfaction in vengeance.

But Heather’s demon is still raging.

How does one reason with a demon?

“I think this is getting out of hand,” I say hesitantly, glancing at Dom, who gives me a long look back. “Surely we can use them. Heather, there are so many people back at the Den. Maybe they can help.”

Heather’s face hardens. “If they were going tohelp, they would have. They wouldn’t have shot Tommy in the head and taken our group captive.”

“But—”

“No. Stop being naive, Eden,” she snaps, and her hair is a living flame around her. “You got your fun, now let me have mine.”

Fun?It was necessary, even satisfying, to poison those men. I chose a path and took it, knowing what it would mean—but it wasn’tfun. I was a storm that day, and those men weren’t the only casualties.

It razed me to the ground as well.

I give her a reproving look and am about to try again when she steps away.

She glances at Dom, effectively ending the conversation with me, and I try not to sniff in irritation.

“Bentley’s leaving back to Red Zone today—the prisoners aren’t giving him anything more on the meds, so he’s taking off with what he has. If you need anything from him, get it now.” She looks up at the sun, then around at all of us. “We’re out in five minutes.”

Heather moves to walk away, then hesitates. I watch her tensely as she takes a deep breath, then glances at me. She gives me a tentative smile. “You should use them to wash. You really do smell like a barnyard.”

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