Page 100 of Severed Heart

“Planning to start a war already?”

“Maybe.” He sips his water. “So will you do it?”

“This is a mysterious request.”

“I’m a mysterious guy,” he boasts, which earns him another of my eye rolls. “I’ll make it worth your while.” He gives me a slow wink.

“So I don’t get to know whyorwhat the payment is? That is much trust.”

“Well, then.” He refills his glass. “It’s a good thing you trust me, and when I get back, we can—”

My stomach drops. “Get back from where?”

He glances over at me in confusion. “You know where. I’m enlisting at the end of summer.”

The shatter of glass barely registers between us.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

DELPHINE

TYLER FROWNS DOWNat my shattered water glass in the sink as I turn to face him fully.“What?”

“I’m enlisting at the end of summer,” he repeats as I gape at him.

“You’re not serious ... Soldier, are you fucking joking?”

“What the ... of course I’m serious.” He cocks his head. “Are you joking?”

“You haven’t said anything in months and months!” I shout, my tone and reaction surprising me. Bile climbs my throat, my anxiety spiking as I drop my eyes. I was already in fear of losing his constant company due to the end of our training.

“I know it’s a sore subject for you, so I never bring it up,” he admonishes, alarmed by the sudden shift in me.

“I t-thought you had reconsidered.” Panic continues to rise as I clamp my mouth shut while dread thoroughly seizes me. When I start to pick up the broken glass in the sink, he nudges me aside to do it, but I refuse him—needing the task, any task to keep myself together.

“Delphine,” he whispers in a consoling tone as I continue to carefully retrieve the shards. “Those plans we made together are for the futureafterI serve.”

“News to me now. Then what are you waiting for? What have you been waiting for? Go, Marine. I have no more to teach you anyway. You have what you need from me.”

“Well,hello bullshit, are we multitasking today by lyingwhile we tap dance?” he bites out with edge.

Refusing to acknowledge his statement, I keep my eyes on the glass as I continue to pick at the dozens of tiny shards.

“Delphine,” he exhales, “I told you this when we started—”

“You were barely seventeen,” I argue, cradling the glass in my hand, “youwereconfused—”

“I’ve never been confused about enlisting,” he states, taking my wrist and dumping the glass I gathered from my palm into his to protect me, as if I’m a child, before disposing it into my nearby trashcan.

“I don’t understand why you’re giving me hell about this,” he says, gripping the side of the sink as I start to gather more of the broken pieces. “This reaction is ridiculous.”

“Do not call me ridiculous!” I snap, unable to justify a single word or reaction bursting out of me. Unable to stand another second of the unease, I head for the freezer.

“Stop,” he snaps, rounding me to make me face him, “don’t. Not yet. Talk to me.”

I push at his chest, and he doesn’t budge. “You talkto me, Soldier. Explainto mewhy you plan to enlist in a controlled army, carrying out others’ orders. Orders of corrupt puppeteers. I taught you how tolead, tobuild and run your own army, not to fight in someone else’s wars!”

“Tobias is—”