Page 20 of King of Ashes (Kingdom of Sinners #4)

"Enjoying the attention?" he hisses. "Is that why you wandered off? Looking for someone else to fuck?"

I stare at him in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

“Playing the tease seems to come naturally to you."

Something snaps inside me. Without thinking, I throw my champagne directly in his face. The room falls silent as the liquid drips down his shocked features.

"How dare you," I whisper, trembling with rage. "You dress me like a prostitute, parade me around like a conquest, let your friends talk about me like I'm not even human, and then wonder why your men think you’ve offered me up to them?"

Phoenix's eyes are dangerous, his breathing heavy as he wipes champagne from his face. For a moment, I think he might strike me.

But I’m undaunted as I continue. "You did this." I gesture at my dress. "You created this spectacle. You wanted me humiliated. Don't you dare blame me for the consequences of your sick game."

The silence in the room is thick. Everyone stares, frozen in place, witnessing my defiance and Phoenix's fury. The champagne drips from his face onto his expensive suit. Each droplet feels like a death knell.

“Come with me.” Phoenix grips my arm again and hauls me out of the room.

"Phoenix—" Blaise begins.

“Don’t.” Phoenix glares at him as he drags me out of the room and through the hall to his office.

When we're finally alone, Phoenix pushes me against the closed door. "You want to talk about humiliation?" he growls. "How about the humiliation of discovering the woman who said she loved you, that said she’d never loved anyone else before, was a fucking liar.”

My brow furrows wondering what he’s talking about.

“Or worse, learning she was using you while her family plotted to murder yours? That she said nothing as they set fire and burned my family alive."

For the first time, I see pain in his handsome features. I see the horror and grief he must have felt as his house burned with his parents inside. Something inside me breaks. Ten years of guilt and grief come pouring out.

"I loved you," I whisper. "I loved you so much?—”

“Bullshit!” His hand slams on the door next to my head, making me flinch. “You used what you learned from me and helped them?—”

“I didn’t.” I shake my head. If he believes nothing else from me, I desperately want him to believe that I was not complicit, at least not knowingly or willingly, in his family’s destruction. “I had no idea… until…” I’m not sure I should tell him what I know.

“Until what?” His hand slides over my chest and upward toward my neck. He doesn’t squeeze but the threat is there.

“It was too late. They’d already taken my phone and locked me away when my father told me what he’d done. He said you were dead, but I prayed you weren’t. I prayed you’d still come for me.” I haven’t cried since that day, but the pain of it is back, so perhaps that’s why tears spill down my cheeks.

His expression flickers with confusion. "How can I believe you?"

"If you had come back for me—if you had just checked—you would have known I had nothing to do with it. I was a prisoner in my own home, just like I am now. The only difference is the jailer."

Phoenix steps back as if I've struck him. "You're twisting everything. You used me. Your family?—"

"My family is not me!" I shout. "I am not Hampton Kean. I am not Ronan. I was eighteen years old and in love with you, and they destroyed that because—” I stop because he can’t know about Brigit. I can’t risk what he might do.

“Because what?” He looks so tormented that a part of me wants to soothe him.

“You know why. Your father didn’t want us together.”

"You could have warned me," he insists, but there's less conviction in his voice. “I showed you how to break out.”

“I didn’t know what they were planning, but if I could have gotten out, I would have. All I wanted back then was to be with you. Like you, my father put guards on me. One slept in my room. Practically watched me in the bathroom. What should I have done, Phoenix? Peed on them?”

We stare at each other, both breathing hard, caught in this endless cycle of blame and pain. I realize then that there is no going back. He’ll never be able to look at me and not see his home and family burning to the ground. That loss will always make me a target for his rage.

I wipe tears from my face. "This is getting us nowhere. You want your revenge? Take it. But stop pretending this is about justice when it's just about making yourself feel better."

I turn away from him, exhaustion settling deep in my bones. I reach for the doorknob, desperate to escape this room, this man, these impossible feelings that refuse to die despite everything.

"Keira." His voice is softer now, stripped of its earlier venom. "Wait."

I pause but don't turn around. "What more could you possibly want from me?"

His hand touches my shoulder. I flinch but don't pull away.

"Just… stay. Please."

The word 'please' catches me off guard. It's the first time he's asked rather than commanded since his return. Slowly, I turn to face him.

What I see nearly steals my breath. Phoenix's mask has slipped, revealing something raw and unguarded in his eyes. Confusion, pain, and something else I dare not name. The cold calculation is gone, replaced by the shadow of the man I once loved.

"Why should I stay?”

He doesn't answer with words. Instead, his hand slides up to cup my cheek, his touch unexpectedly gentle. I should pull away. Every instinct screams at me to protect myself, to remember what he's done, what he's capable of doing. But I remain frozen, caught in his gaze.

Phoenix leans in slowly, giving me time to retreat, to refuse. I don't. Perhaps it's weakness or exhaustion or the foolish heart that never learned to stop loving him. Whatever the reason, I stay perfectly still as his lips meet mine.

The kiss is nothing like the brutal claiming of before, but neither is it gentle. It’s like he’s trying to recapture something he lost. My eyes flutter closed against my will, my body remembering what my mind wants to forget.

He deepens the kiss, drawing me closer until I can feel the rapid beating of his heart against my chest. I shouldn't respond, shouldn't show him this power he still holds over me. But for a moment, I do.

When you behave like a whore—you dress like one. Eliza’s words from Phoenix come back to me and with them, the horror of what I’m doing. He’s not the Phoenix I once loved. He’s made that clear.

I twist away from him, disgusted with myself that for a moment, I wanted him.

“What’s wrong?”

I look up at him. His confused expression suggests he’s truly clueless as to why I might not want to kiss him.

“I won’t fight you, Phoenix. I know I can’t. But I’m no whore no matter how badly you want to make me one.” I hold my hands out to my sides, offering myself like a sacrifice. “Take me if you want. I won’t fight it. But I won’t forget either. I’ll never forget what you did to me tonight.”