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“Sleep, princess.” The tension in Rowan’s anguished eyes stretches so unbearably thin. “Sleep.”
I do as the angel commands.
Chapter 25
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So, this is where your priorities lie…
Rowan
Vision red, I grip Corbin’s shirt and press him into the wall. In my head, his bones break, one by one, until my only friend is little more than a mangled and bloody mess in this vacant hall. As far as I’m concerned in this moment, him being my only friend is all that’s keeping him alive.
“Rowan,” he says, tone severe. “She’s fine. We played a game. She got so drunk she passed out.”
I pound his back into the plaster. “Before or after you could interrogate her?”
A far too lenient laugh slips out of him as he, too casually, pockets his hands. “Before. She was out cold by the time I turned around.” His expression blackens. “Can you pull out of your hyperjustice long enough to understand this is an exaggerated reaction? I didn’t hurt your precious princess. I was only trying to do a little digging. To protect you.”
No number of seething breaths cools the burning in my lungs. “I said Briar didn’t concern you.”
“Clearly, she concerns you, which means she concerns me.” His hand locks around mine, and he swears. “Just look at yourself, Rowan. She got a little too drunk, and you’ve gone mad.”
“She begged me to kill her, Corbin.”
He whistles low and rolls his eyes. “Not much alcohol tolerance, huh? You’re too soft.”
I slam him into the wall again. “Too soft? Because you went against my direct order to leave her alone and now I’m pissed?” Before I realize, my fist collides with his jaw. The blood-curdling crack echos in my ears as he hits the ground. When he tries to get up, his arms shake under him, and fail.
Sputtering curses, he fixes his tilted gaze on me as scarlet splatters across the tile. “What the—” He swears. “—man!”
“I care about her.” The words spill from the deepest cavern in the pit of my chest. My knuckles ache. The sound of my fist meeting Corbin’s bone rides beneath the memory of Briar begging me to kill her, and I force myself to take a step back. Level my breathing. Find something stable and calm in my head. The only thing that forms is Briar’s smile, and it feels like a serrated edge running over my heart. “I care about her. Whatever her motive, she is my fiancee, and you are compelled under oath to respect that by penalty of—”
“Death?” Corbin finds his bearings, pushes himself upright, and spits red. “You’d really threaten to kill me over one girl you’ve only known since the beginning of summer? That’s where your loyalty lies? We’re family. She isn’t.”
“Family shouldn’t have gone against my word.”
Yelling a swear, Corbin pounds his fist against the floor. Throwing his head back, he releases a choked laugh as blood streaks down his throat. “Right! Yes. Of course. I forgot. That’s why it took months for you to get rid of Granger when he repeatedly challenged and undermined your ever—” He swears. “—precious word.” Fury ignites in Corbin’s brown eyes. “You think I’ve spent half a decade at your side to be treated like this? What’s wrong with you? You’re choosing this—this charade over me?”
“And if it’s not a charade?” I growl. “If I don’t want it to be a charade? If I love her, then what?”
Cold, Corbin says, “Then she’s played you like the pathetic kazoo you are.”
Pulling a deep breath into my chest, I hold it several seconds, then let it slip free. “Get out of my sight.”
Corbin’s expression hardens. He mutters, “Fine,” drags himself upright, and teeters against the wall. “But you know something, Boss? We could have done it without her, but you couldn’t have done anything without me. I’m not going to stand idly by and watch it all go up in flames when she hands you the matches and tells you to light them. If you’ve gone blind again and don’t want my help this time, then all that’s left for you to do is burn.”
With that, he trudges toward the stairs, and I turn, heading back to my sun.
Who, in case Corbin hasn’t figured it out yet, I would gladly burn for.
Chapter 26
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It’s more than a like, like, more than a mistake.
Briar
