Page 100 of Broken Obsession

“Is he…?” Eden didn’t even know what he was trying to ask.

“He’ll be crippled for the rest of his life,” Ares provided anyway, somehow knowing.

He always seemed to know what Eden needed to hear.

“Your father’s left leg was broken in several places,” he reminded. “I know that’s what makes this hard for you. That you’re being forced to imagine the sort of pain your family went through at the end, but try to focus on how they deserve it. We’ve simply returned the favor.” His multi-slate beeped, and he checked the message. “Ellery just texted. Apparently, Sedos landed wrong and also broke his wrist. Bonus points.”

“I want him dead.” All week, Eden had watched from the sidelines as the campus turned on Sedos and the student scrambled to find a reason for his sudden ostracization. Now, after an injury like that, the guy was going to be hospitalized for months. There was a certain misery in that as well, of course, but Eden didn’t want it.

Not for Sedos' sake, but for his own, because Ares was right. This whole ordeal was forcing him to wonder if that’s how his father had looked when his limbs had been shattered. If his scream had sounded the same. If he’d been as scared.

Eden thought of Zar in the garage, casually ordering Ares to shoot a random stranger for him. How Ares had reacted without question.

“Kill him,” Eden said, the words muffled against Ares’ coat collar.

Ares clicked away on his multi-slate, sending a message without skipping a beat. “Done. He won’t even make it to the hospital.”

If there was a problem, the God of Creation would solve it. It really was that simple.

“Are you like this for everyone?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“No.”

“Just for your brother then?” And him, obviously, though Eden stubbornly left that part out. This wasn’t the time for that stupid spark of misplaced jealousy, and yet he couldn’t snuff it out like he could his disgust at seeing a man’s leg snapped in half.

“Paradise.” Ares' fingers tightened in the hairs at the back of Eden’s head, and he tugged until Eden was forced from his hiding spot. He met his gaze sternly. “I told you. You possess the God of Creation. You do. No one else. What I owe Balthazar can’t be measured, but he doesn’t own me. He has a seat at my table, but you’re the king on my throne.”

“More poetry.” Light damn Eden for letting it work on him.

Ares’ hand slid forward, seizing his jaw and holding him still. “Use me. What use is there in possessing a god if you don’t command him? Keep running from the inevitable if it pleases you but play your cards right while you do so. No creature of mine will lose the upper hand lightly.”

“You also said you’re the one in control.”

“I hold the reins, but you set the pace.”

“I want to leave.” Eden stood, and he didn’t pull away when Ares took his hand and led him up the pathway.

Everyone was so busy staring at their multi-slates and exclaiming about the suddenness of Sedos’ injury, they hardly paid him and the Black Hart any mind.

Chapter 23:

“Where are we?” Eden stared out the fogged window of the car at the wooden building tucked into the wilderness off the side of the road.

It was a luxury cabin that had at least two levels and didn’t appear to be occupied.

They’d driven to the game despite the field being on campus and only a fifteen-minute walk from Castle Black. At the time, Ares had expressed his aversion to traipsing through the cold, but since he’d deviated from the road that would circle around to the Black Hart’s humble abode, it’d become obvious to Eden that he’d had other intentions from the beginning.

Eden had opted to quietly wait it out, content to lie back against the heated seat and sort through his tangled feelings. But now that they were actually here, in the middle of nowhere, he was second-guessing his approach.

“Before you say anything,” Ares shut the car off, “I’d planned on bringing you here before you spoiled the plot of that Memory.”

Right, the one where Ransom and OP end up in a cabin in the woods.

Alone.

Eden got out of the car and shivered, hunching his shoulders as he scowled across the hood of the vehicle at Ares. “If you’re thinking about ordering me to run through the forest, think again.”

“In this weather?” He shook his head. “There’s too great a risk you’d trip and hurt yourself. Or worse, break your neck.”