Page 16 of The Reckoning (Oakmount Elite #7)

The air between us snaps taut.

Arson reacts instantly, fury flashing across his face.

His voice is a snarl, sharp enough to flay me open.

“She doesn’t belong to anyone. You’re just too blind to see it.

Too much of a coward to say what you feel.

You’re jealous—jealous that I can admit it, jealous of what we share.

” The words detonate in my chest, cutting deeper than any fist ever could, because he’s right.

He’s stolen the one truth I’ve never had the strength to voice.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Lilian slide to the edge of the bed. “Stop, both of you.” The fire in her blue eyes, the steel in her spine—this is the Lilian I’ve always admired. She’s so strong despite her supposed fragility.

Determined despite being constantly underestimated.

Fuck, this is the woman I’ve missed, the one I’ve longed for.

She pushes off the bed and slips between us, and somehow it feels like she’s trying to protect him.

Why him? Why fucking him? “I already explained this to Arson, and I intended to tell you as well. I can’t keep doing this.

I won’t keep doing this. I refuse to be caught in the middle of your hate for one another.

Choosing between the two of you isn’t an option. It would kill me.”

“The last thing I want to do is hurt you, Lilian.” It’s true, even though I know that’s exactly what I’ve done. All the times I pushed her away, lied to myself, and ignored her. It was another slap in the face to her.

Lilian can’t see Arson because her back is to him, but he tilts his head to the side and curls his lip, a cross between a sneer and a smirk appearing on his face.

“I would never make you choose, Lilian. You know that, but I think it’s obvious who gives a fuck about you and who doesn’t.

He had a chance to claim you, and he threw it away. ”

“Are you kidding me? You know nothing about my relationship with Lilian. Every fucking choice I ever made was based upon her. To protect her, to ensure she wasn’t used as another fucking chess piece on our father’s board. I didn’t throw shit away.”

Arson’s laugh is low, humorless, the sound of someone twisting the knife because he knows exactly where to strike. I know he’s goading me, baiting me into a fight but I can’t stop myself from giving in to the rage. This has been a long time coming.

“Protect her?” he repeats, shaking his head. “All you did was hide behind excuses. You call it sacrifice—I call it cowardice. You never claimed her because deep down you knew you weren’t man enough to.”

My chair screeches against the floor as I shove to my feet, muscles coiled tight, fury searing through me. I don’t just stand—I rip the chair back and toss it aside, the crack of wood hitting the floor rings in my ears.

I don’t think. I don’t breathe.

I lunge and swing wildly, aiming for the brother who stole everything—my life, my freedom, and now the only woman I’ve ever given a fuck about, and maybe even loved.

Arson sidesteps easily, a lifetime of fighting giving him reflexes I lack despite our identical genetics.

I’m not thinking things through, not able to rationalize.

I’m all anger, all pain. I just want to hurt him.

To make him feel even a fraction of what he’s caused me.

“Aries, stop!” Lilian shouts, her fear-laced voice sinking in.

I pull back just in time to avoid hitting her, my heart thunders in my chest, and a fresh wave of horror ripples through me.

What am I becoming? What has he made me into?

“I’m done,” Lilian says, voice cracking with emotion.

“With the fighting. The hatred. All of it. I locked you in that cell to try to fix the problem, but it seems all I did was make it worse. If all that matters to both of you is getting revenge and seeing how much you can make the other person hate you, then I want nothing to do with either of you. This is my life, too, and regardless of what you both think, I have a say in what happens in my own life.”

Why does it feel like she’s leaving, like she’s slipping through my fingers all over again?

Because she is. She’s telling us that she isn’t going to be caught in the middle of our hate anymore, and she means it.

I can see it in her eyes and feel it in the tremble of her voice.

It kills her, but she’s willing to walk away from us both if we can’t figure this out, and that thought guts me.

It cuts me right down the fucking middle.

Lilian moves from between us, and we both seem to turn in her direction, gravitating toward her like she is our sun.

Arson recovers first, taking a half step toward her before thinking better of it.

“Lilian—”

“No.” She cuts him off, eyes blazing. “I mean it. I’m not going to let you two tear each other apart over me.

That’s not who I am. That’s not who I want to be.

If your hate for one another is greater than your feelings for me, then you can have each other.

” She looks between us, something like determination—or maybe resignation—settling in her blue eyes.

“If you can’t figure it out and make it work, then I’ll do this on my own. All of it.”

The silence that follows is thick enough to choke on.

Arson stares at her with an intensity that makes something twist in my gut—possessive, protective, something I’ve never seen from him before.

The look doesn’t belong on my face, yet there it is, mirrored back at me in the most fucked-up way possible.

“Lilian,” he says again, voice uncharacteristically gentle. “It’s not safe for you to be alone. These men are dangerous. Whatever they want with Aries?—”

“I don’t care.” She cuts him off. “Maybe with me out of the picture, you both will be able to figure things out—either that or you’ll kill each other.”

Her gaze shifts to me, those blue eyes that have haunted me for years now hardened with determination. “Aries, I understand your anger. I do. But this”—she gestures back and forth between us—”this hatred, this competition. It has to stop.”

“Easy for you to say,” I mutter, the bitterness I’ve been nursing for months spilling over. “You’re not the one who spent months in a cage while your twin played house with your?—”

I stop myself again, that word still caught in my throat.

What was Lilian to me, really?

Something I’ve never been able to define because defining it would make it real?

“With what?” Lilian challenges, stepping closer. “Your what, Aries? Your girlfriend...because you sure as hell made sure I was never that.”

The accusation stings, but only because there’s truth in it. Our relationship was always complicated, but it was also…something else. Something genuine that got tangled up in expectations and obligations.

“That’s not fair,” I say, voice low. “What we had?—”

“Was built on lies,” she finishes for me. “Lies about who you were. About who I was. About what was expected of us. And worst of all, the lies you told yourself to keep us from actually being something .”

“And what you have with him is better?” I can’t keep the bitterness from my tone. “The man who kidnapped me? Who stole my life? Who’s been planning the destruction of our entire family?”

“I didn’t say that.” Lilian glances back at Arson, and a look of complication passes between them. “There is no competition to be had. I’m not choosing either of you. I’m choosing myself.”

When we don’t respond, she stands, hands on her hips and mouth grim.

“Going forward, if either of you wants anything to do with me, you will learn to fucking share. Learn to put your differences aside. I don’t care how much it might hurt me to walk away.

Don’t call my bluff because I’ll do it. Seeing you two act like this hurts me so much more. ”

“It’s not something we can turn on and off,” Arson mutters, clearly frustrated.

Lilian takes a deep breath, maybe trying to center herself before she looks between us once more.

“I understand that, and I’m not expecting you to let all that pain and hatred go.

But I will not let you use me as an object to transfer those emotions through.

If either of you wants a chance with me, if you care as much as you claim, then you will learn to get along.

Even if it’s only for me. Our primary focus is working together, and we can’t work as a team if you’re constantly at odds with each other.

These men—whoever they are, whatever they want—they’re playing a game none of us fully understand.

It was clear by the way the older one was talking to me that he knew things that we didn’t.

We are missing big pieces of the puzzle.

We can’t be at our strongest if the only thing you both care more about than bringing these people down is hurting each other. ”

Arson resettles his shoulders, and it’s so wholly a movement that isn’t related to me that it makes me relax a degree.

“I understand,” I tell her, willing her to see it.

“So do I,” Arson adds.

She shakes her head at us. “If you understood, then you would let some of the hate between the two of you go, so you could work together, but you don’t. You’re still at each other’s throats.”

It’s the truth, and I don’t know how to defuse the rage.

Which is greater—my hate for Arson or my desire to be with Lilian?

There is no Lilian without him, and if I want her, then I will need to learn to accept that.

“I’m not giving you up, and I’m not willing to put your safety at risk because of him.”

“I feel the same way,” Arson growls.

“Okay, then we’re in agreement. You will do your best to stop fighting and trying to hurt each other.”

My jaw aches as I clench it. I don’t want to agree, but I know if I don’t, Lilian will walk out that fucking door, and I won’t be able to live with myself if I let her walk away again.

“Yes, at least for the time being. Once everything returns to normal, I can’t say we won’t be at each other’s throats again. The only thing we can seem to agree on is you.”

Arson meets my gaze, identical hazel eyes reflecting the same cold determination I feel. “Agreed.”

“Fine, but my stance remains the same. It’s both of you or neither of you. I refuse to choose between you.”

We settle into silence that I hope means she believes we are going to try, but I don’t have high hopes. Even I don’t believe we can make this temporary truce work, but failing her isn’t a fucking option.

Arson draws my attention away from my raging thoughts when he snags a laptop out of a bag off the floor. “I can get started on investigating these guys a little more.”

I scratch my jaw. “What do you mean? You said they were your backers. Don’t you know who you have backing you?”

He levels me with an icy look. “I doubt I need to explain this to you, but sometimes people turn out to be something worse or better than you thought they were. Turns out, I didn’t know these fuckers as well as I thought.”

At least he’s taking accountability for his lack of fucking original research.

This partnership should have never happened.

It’s strange, watching him take charge. Seeing the man—my brother—working on a plan that might save us all.

Part of me wants to resist on principle—to fight his leadership simply because it’s him, but I just agreed to keep the peace.

It’s necessary for Lilian’s protection that we work together.

At least until this more immediate threat is dealt with.

After that, we’ll see what happens. One thing I know for sure is that neither of us intends to give her up.

I move to stand on the opposite side of the table. “Tell me what you need me to do and I’ll do it.” The smile Lilian gives me is worth every insufferable moment I’ll have to endure with my brother in order to be with her. I want Lilian, and I’m going to prove it to her.