Page 150 of Crucible
Pete is a distant memory.
The ice cracks again as if it can sense that I’m swooning over cold-blooded murders and is deciding whether I’m too stupid to live.
Then again…the only safe way is back to them, so maybe the lake is Team Psychos.
“Thorin, I’m scared.”
Not just of the cracking ice, but the fracturing happening inside ofme.What am I to do when I’m being pulled in opposite directions and without a compass to guide me? I don’t want to be a prisoner, but even now, even after seeing them murder four innocent people out ofjealousy—God, help me, I still want them.
Something is seriously wrong with me, but the thing is…I’m pretty sure I don’t care anymore.
“I won’t let you fall,” Thorin promises.
“I’m so tired.”
“I know, baby. They drugged you.”
Even my shivering bones seem to pause. “What?”
“The one who gave you the cup.”Sam.“I was watching him through the scope. He slipped you something, Aurelia. It’s what’s making you sleepy. My guess is you have another five to seven minutes before you’re out cold.”
“W-why would they do that?”
“Take one guess,” he answers tightly. When I don’t respond, he speaks again. “I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you, wolf.”
“I don’t care what they were going to do. You didn’t have to kill them, Thorin. That wasextreme. You have to know that.”
“The only thing I know is that I’ll cross any lines to keep you safe.”
“If they deserved to die, so do you, you hypocrite!”
“I didn’t say we saved you because we’re good. We saved you because you’re ours, Aurelia.”
Thorin takes a step forward, and I take one back.
The thin ice between us cracks a little more.
“What’s the fucking hold up?” Khalil yells. “Stop fucking chit-chatting! The ice is going to give!”
“Aurelia, we don’t have time for this,” Thorin says as gently as he can. I can still hear his irritation, though. And something else. Something foreign. He’s…scared.
If I fall, I die. Probably.
Well, so what? I should have died in that crash. I should have died when I fought to save an assistant I cared nothing about. I should have died so many times in the three days I searched for salvation and found my penance instead.
Thorin, Seth, and Khalil aren’t the only ones who deserve to die. I do, too. Yet here we are, defying death at every turn.
“I think it’s the perfect time, Thorin. You want me off this ice, and I say we need to get a few things straight.”
Thorin reacts in a way I don’t expect, but I guess I get? He tips his head back and yells his frustration at the sky. Out of the three of them, I probably test his patience the most. When his gaze falls on me again, it’s carefully blank, and then he gestures for me to proceed like we’re two war generals negotiating a cease fire across a table.
“I don’t want to be your prisoner anymore.” His jaw tightens, and I can see him fighting not to tell me what I already know. “I know you won’t let me go. I know. I’ll stop fighting you. I won’t run. But I want something in return.”
“And what is that?”
“No more punishments, no more indentured servitude, and I want this trackeroff.”
The ice rumbles another warning, but I hold my ground—so to speak.
