Page 19

AURELIA

S omeone is crying.

At first, I think it’s me. I think I’m sobbing in my dream like a wild animal that’s been wounded—except the voice those cries belong to doesn’t belong to me. And I’ve learned a long time ago to cry where no one—not even me—can see.

For the longest time, I thought that I wasn’t able. I thought it was just another thing my uncle had taken from me. I didn’t even cry when my plane went down, and I knew I was about to die.

If that’s not a sign something is seriously broken inside me, what is?

Another hoarse scream jars me awake this time, and I sit up with a gasp. The den is dark, so I can’t see a thing at first. My eyes are slow to adjust, so the strangled sounds are even more terrifying as I wait out the dark.

Crawling to the end of the couch where the lamp that’s now off is, I yank on the string repeatedly to no avail.

Shit.

Bulb must have died.

Some of the darkness in the room recedes, so I search for the source of the sounds.

Seth’s turned onto his side away from me, and he’s shivering inside his sleeping bag even though the cabin is pretty warm. When I touch his arm, his skin feels clammy, and worry pierces my armor as I wonder if he’s sick.

Oh, God. He didn’t eat the mice stew, did he? Not even Seth could be that reckless.

“Seth?” I try to shake him awake. “Seth, are you okay? Seth, wake up. Seth!”

His eyes fly open, and they’re frantic as they search around before finding mine in the dark. They’re wide with panic one moment, and the next, I’m being yanked off the couch and body slammed onto the footlocker. My back smarts from hitting the hard surface, and it dazes me long enough for Seth to get his hands around my throat.

God, his strength, his rage…

I…I can’t breathe.

My nails claw his wrists and face, but it’s not enough to make him release me.

“Why can’t you sick fucks leave Zeke alone?” he shouts. Seth uses his grip on my neck to lift my upper body, only to slam me back down. I almost black out right then and there. “I did what you asked! You…can’t…have…him!” he yells after every slam. “You can’t have him! You can’t have him!”

“Seth,” I struggle to get out. “P-please.”

The edges of my vision are just starting to fade when the light in Khalil’s bedroom flicks on.

My head is hanging over the edge of the table now, so I can see him rubbing his eyes when he shuffles into the den. “Whatever the hell you guys are doing in here, keep it down. Some of us are trying to fucking sleep.”

Khalil’s hand drops, and then he viciously swears when he sees us and rushes over.

“Seth,” Khalil says gently. “Seth, let her go.” He starts rubbing Seth’s freaking back like he’s the one being strangled. “She’s not going to hurt you, brother. She’s not one of them.”

Seth tightens his hold, and I feel the fight in me fading as my eyes roll back and I start to slip away. Khalil must notice because he curses, stands, and abandons his gentle approach.

He hits Seth hard as hell in the temple.

It’s only once, but it’s enough to knock him off me.

I don’t realize Seth’s unconscious until I draw in a desperate breath. I start coughing to expel the excess air when my lungs overfill, so I roll onto my side and see Seth knocked out on the floor.

A lock of his hair suddenly falls over his forehead, and that small movement is enough to send me scrambling to get away in case he wakes up. I fall off the footlocker in my haste, and Khalil grabs me under my arms and lifts me like I weigh nothing. When he turns me around to face him, it’s all I can do not to slap the shit out of him when I see his expression.

Khalil’s glaring at me like this was my fault.

“What the fuck were you doing to him?” he demands, confirming my suspicion.

“Doing…to him ?” I pant. I’m still trying to catch my breath. My voice cracks and grates my abused throat, so I rub it while I regard Khalil. “He was…screaming…in his…sleep.” I swallow and exhale one last time. “I was trying to wake him up!”

“He was dreaming,” Khalil explains as if I should have known. “Seth gets really bad nightmares sometimes, and the dark scares him. He didn’t know it was you he was hurting.”

“I don’t give a shit!” I scream. “You knew this could happen and didn’t bother to warn me?”

Khalil’s jaw locks. “It was none of your damn business.”

“None of my business? He just tried to kill me!”

“But did you die? No. So stop fucking whining and join the club.”

I do hit him, then, but a slap is much too easy for this bastard, so I punch him in the throat as hard as I can.

Let’s see how he likes it.

“ That’s for taking your sweet fucking time,” I say with a growl as Khalil gags and coughs.

Recovering quicker than I did, he grabs my hair and shakes me around like a rag doll before sticking his face in mine and roaring, “Why do you always have to be such a fucking bitch?”

“Fuck you!”

Khalil’s only response is to toss my ass on the couch like I’m a sack of flour. I huff and sit up quickly because it’s on and fucking popping now. Snatching that useless fucking lamp from the table, I raise it in the air.

“Aurelia, don’t you fucking dare,” Khalil warns right before I send it sailing toward his head. He ducks, and it hits the wall behind him before shattering into several large pieces. Khalil looks at the destroyed lamp before his unamused gaze travels to me. “You’re a fucking psycho, you know that?”

“I’m just getting started, Khalil.”

He sighs and rubs his eyes but stays where he is. “I’m too fucking tired for this shit, baby. You can have this one. Next time Seth has a nightmare, come get Thorin or me. Don’t touch him.”

My lips curl despite the butterflies in my tummy at hearing him call me baby. It’s sick how right it sounds. “Don’t worry,” I assure him. “I wouldn’t dream of touching that animal again.”

“Do not call him that.” Khalil takes a warning step forward. “You have no idea what’s he been through!”

“Oh, boo-hoo,” I mock.

A moan comes from Seth’s direction, and I flinch, thinking he might be coming to.

It doesn’t go unnoticed by Khalil.

“Aurelia…” He sighs again. “Go sleep upstairs.”

“I don’t want to share a bed with Thorin.”

“He wouldn’t let you if you tried. We have another couch, in case you forgot.”

Relieved, I take my blanket because it’s super soft and did a great job of keeping me warm. I start for the stairs, peering over my shoulder as I go to see Khalil hauling an unconscious Seth into his room.

When I reach the mini landing midway up the stairs and turn, I see Thorin standing at the top with his hands in his pockets. He’s shrouded in the darkness looming behind him, but I know it’s him. He looks me over and, seeing me still in one piece, turns to head to his room without a word.

The first thing I notice is that it’s warmer upstairs. The sounds of the wild are louder, too, but the predators lurking beyond these walls are the least of my worries. I have my hands full with the ones inside.

I tiptoe over to the couch inside the cavernous living room and glare at the closed door of Thorin’s room before making myself at home on the ratty couch.

I can’t believe this is my life right now.

I’m Aurelia George.

I shit gold and wipe my ass with money. I’ve convinced millions of people to worship me with only my voice, marketable face, and carefully curated persona because my real one sucks. It’s like defusing a bomb with a paper clip and your eyes closed.

Total fucking bullshit, but people buy into it.

And yet these Neanderthals have turned me into their whore and made me sleep on the floor.

I get comfortable fast and start to drift, but every creak of the cabin startles me awake, and I start the process all over again.

It’s been a long day, one of the longest in my life, and I still can’t sleep. Somehow, I have to find a way to be up before dawn without an alarm to wake me, so I can make my captors breakfast and see them off when they leave and wait for them to return like a proper pet.

I eventually succumb to my exhaustion and sleep through the night.

The best part is that I don’t dream.