Page 29 of Starborn Husbands

But he isn’t here, and he can go fuck himself.

CHAPTEREIGHT

Atlanta

“You look like fucking shit,” Phoenix says, throwing his bag down.

Have I slept? I don’t think so. Everything hurts, but not in the same way it does when I’ve been stabbed or have put myself through a grueling workout. It’s a life-sapping pain. A will-destroying pain. Everything is exhausting, even thoughts. If I hadn’t already fallen, I would be on my way.

“Fuck you too, Phoenix. Don’t you have someone to report to?”

“Yeah. You, asshole.”

Me? Is it me? I’m going to have to take another look at why he’s here. “If it’s me, you address me by ‘sir’, not asshole.” Though, I’ll let that one pass because I am an asshole right now. I can’t bring myself to care.

He smirks. It’s a smirk like mine. Phoenix is like me but with the ability to articulate his feelings to other people. “I’m here to report to you,sir.”

Cocky bastard. I’m proud of him.

“Great. Go get some sleep. You’ll need it.”

“Gods, Atlanta. You, okay?”

“Never been better.” I turn away from him with the idea I’m going to have a beer or six. Maybe I’ll drown myself in alcohol. It won’t kill me, but I can forget that Gem ever existed. I’ll stay like that—eternally drunk—and never think about him again.

Sounds better than this.

I end up at a bar, but not an open one. I’m at the site of Treyu’s fuck up. Maybe I should be more surprised to see Zhang combing through the scattered remains, but I’m not. The cold rain soaks us quickly, and the miserable weather serves to further darken my mood.

“I don’t even know what the fuck I’m doing here, Centaurus. What are you doing here?” I ask, boots squelching over the wet ground.

He grips his drenched hair by its roots. “This is driving me insane,” he shouts over the clamor of raindrops pelting against wood and hard ground. “There wasn’t a child here. I know there wasn’t. We have to prove it. It’s the right thing to do.”

Taking a breath, he’s about to launch into why I should help and maybe not shove either of my star blades down his throat, but I stop him with a hand to his chest. “I’ll help you, Centaurus.”

“You will?”

“He’s my brother.”

“Yeah, but … never mind. I’ve gone over the night, many times, and it’s just not possible.”

“Huh. Too bad the two of you can’t stop flirting long enough to do what you’re supposed to.”

Zhang mentally disembowels me. “If you would have been looking after him as you should have been, I wouldn’t have had to.”

“Treyu is a grown adult.”

Zhang’s expression says exactly what we all know about Treyu. Yes, he’s a grown adult, but he needs minding. “I know he can be impulsive, but he’s good at what he does. He helped me raise our brothers. He’s not totally irresponsible.”

“I don’t care. I want a watch on him at all times. Now that he’s mine, I can make this demand from the guardians.”

I raise my brows. “Awfully quick to call him yours, aren’t you?”

Will he ever admit it out loud? Gem and I talk about them sometimes. I’m a hypocrite for judging Zhang, but things always seem so much easier from the outside.

“Of course, I am. Then he can be protected with the Centaurus name.”

Know what? I’m over this stupid dance. I’ve been over it since it began. “I know you’re desperately in love with him. Are you ever going to tell him? Or will I have to suffer through this for another millennium?”