Page 210 of BounBound By Scars

Bee looked at Leora and giggled. Fuckinggiggled. “Dylan didn’t send us. Titan did.”

What the—?

The screw is fucking loose on this little psycho.

I turned to Amelia, her face pale, eyes distant.

“Lia,” I said gently, “what does ‘fireflies’ mean?”

Her face crumpled.

“It was something between him and Riley, but… the three of us started using it. It basically means—” she swallowed,“move on without me. I’m not coming back.”

Her voice cracked.

Without thinking, I reached up, brushing away the tear sliding down her cheek.

“I get it, Amelia,” Zarek cut in, his voice quiet. “But I don’t think Dylan meant for us to start working withthem.”

Sebastian’s voice was calmer now. “Think logically, Zarek. If they wanted us dead, we’d be dead. Instead, they’re standing here, having a conversation with us. You think they do that for just anyone?”

Zarek’s lips pressed into a thin line. “You’re right. They probably don’t. But they do answer to people. And five years ago, they answered tosomeonewhen they ripped my brother to shreds.”

A hollow, suffocating silence took hold.

Zarek’s brother was killed by Deathmark?

His voice didn’t waver. “So forgive me if I don’t believe for asecondthat they suddenly grew a fucking conscience.”

Gray didn’t blink. “We don’t do conscience.”

Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is going nowhere.”

“It is.” Zarek’s voice turned final, cutting, like a blade through steel. “It’s where these hollowed-outmachineswalk out this door and never come back.”

“Zarek, listen—”

Zane, apparently, had reached his limit.

“No, he’s right. They expect us to work with them when weknowthey’ve been hired to kill us. Are we just, what… supposed to bend over, spread wide, and take it while they’re trying to insult us with every fucking word that comes out of this fucker’s mouth?”

Gray smirked. “We’re not trying very hard.”

The little psycho giggled again. A full, delighted, spine-chilling, borderlineorgasmicgiggle.

Zane froze. Looked at her like she was an escaped experiment. “What the actual fuck is wrong with you, woman?”

Bee leaned forward, eyes sparkling. “You said ‘spread wide’.”

Zane made a guttural noise, somewhere between a strangled yell and the sound of a man watching his sanity walk away forever.

Sebastian exhaled sharply, rubbing his temple. “Can you give us some time to regroup?”

Bee casually glanced at her bare wrist, like she was checking the time on a nonexistent watch.

It almost made Zarek’s pointforhim. They really weren’tnormal.

Gray sniffed and said, “No.”