Page 22

Bryce shrugged in answer. “Who cares? We’re alive. Just another day in the guild.”

“You know what...” she snapped as she stood and spun to him. “Sometimes I’m this fucking close with you.”

She pinched her fingers together, leaving a sliver of a gap to show how short her patience with him was getting.

“Close to what?” He tilted his head to the side, inspecting her stance, before he chuckled. “Leaving me?Pfft, as if. You and I both know you won’t do that since you’re in love with me. So why don’t we just stop this fight before you say something you regret? I can only put up with so much womanly shit, Emerie.”

Her face turned cold.

He was dead wrong about her loving him. Could she have loved him if he wasn’t a dick to her at times? Absolutely. Shewantedto love him, she wanted him to give her a chance to let that feeling grow, but he kept metaphorically punching her in the heart.

If he kept going, he’d lose her.

Actually, considering he made it out to sound like she was some love-sick puppy, who was too scared to leave him, and he didn’t even have the decency to console her after tonight... she was done.

She wasn’t a doormat, and she sure as shit wasn’t the kind of woman to be beaten down by a guy like him.

“You know what, Bryce? We’re over. I can’t do this anymore with you.”

That made him sit right up, his eyes flinging open wide. “The fuck? Are you seriously trying to break up with me?”

“Trying implies I was unsuccessful.”

Bryce stood after Emerie picked up her sword, attached it to her hips, and walked towards the door. “Wait. Stop. Let’s talk about this, Em.”

Oh? So now he wanted to talk with her? As a last effort?

“Okay fine, stay the damn night.” He pulled her into a forced hug, and her skin immediately crawled.

“Don’t touch me,” she bit out, shoving him off. “If you can’t even give me comfort when I need you the most, then you’re a real piece of shit as a partner.”

He scratched at the side of his unruly hair, that never seemed to stay in place no matter how much he tried to stroke it back. “It’s not like you tried to comfort me either,” he grumbled, just as she placed her hand on the doorknob to leave.

Her eyes grew so wide she thought they’d fall from her face. She spun around and gripped the collar of his shirt so fast that he stumbled in shock.

“Don’t you dare try to manipulate me into feeling like shit. I have been there for you every time you have asked me to, and it was only ever to get your fucking dick wet.” Then she laughed as she let him go as cold realisation settled in. “That’s it. That’s all you’ve ever wanted, isn’t it? You don’t care about me at all, so why should I continue to care for a selfish little boy? No wonder you can’t get promoted.”

His bottom lip pouted slightly under the tension of his mouth flattening in anger. “I’m not a fucking boy – I’m a man. One that’s treated you better than anyone else.”

“You’re actually a little bitch. I was just trying to be nice.”

His mouth dropped open, and Emerie took that as her chance to leave.

“I saved your life tonight, you ungrateful bitch!” She rolled her eyes as she shut the door behind her. While she was walking away, he opened the door to yell, “You better fucking tell Wren I helped you bring that monster down like you promised.”

Emerie gave him the middle finger as she stormed down the hallway. A few people cracked open the doors to their dorm rooms, but she just raised her chin. She hoped her blush wasn’t showing; she hated it when it made the white scarring on her face redden.

At least her anger was keeping all the hurt of this, and her earlier panic, at bay.

Can this night get any worse?

Emerie was about to, in fact, learn that this night could get worse...muchworse.

She didn’t even make it to her own dorm before she was ushered by an Elder to Wren. Along the way, she was given a new uniform top, one with a silver insignia on it, as they informed her she had just ranked up.

There was no fanfare, no celebration.

She barely had a moment to register it before she was told to go down an empty hallway and change her shirt right there and then. Out in the open. She did it, but she would have preferred complete privacy, hating it when anyone looked at the scars marring her torso.