Page 149 of The Silent War

He kissed me, so soft, so painfully slow. There was nothing lustful about it. It was grief.Pain.

When he pulled back, I saw it in his face.

The kind of heartbreak men like him weren’t supposed to feel.

“Life hurts without you, baby,” he whispered, “And I think it’s going to kill us. You being gone…”

His thumb trembled against my cheek like he was touching a ghost. His eyes, unblinking, dark, like he couldn’t believe I was real.

“I went mad,” he whispered. “The night… when you told me goodbye.”

My stomach twisted. The bathroom. My words.

“I heard you. I heard what you meant. And I broke. I walked out of that hotel and killed ten people, Emilia. Ten.”

Bastion went still behind me.

“Three of them were on your brother’s shortlist. Three menwho were supposed to marry you.” He laughed dry, wrong. “The others? Collateral. They were near enough to count.”

He pressed his forehead to mine. “I didn’t make it look like an accident. Not even close. Iwantedyour name on their lips when they died.”

His hand shook now. But he wasn’t ashamed.

“I needed them to know they never had a chance. That touching you meant dying for it.”

Bastion leaned in closer, his arm around my waist tightening, anchoring me between them. As if scared I’d run.

My heart thudded so loud it drowned out everything else.

Luca leaned forward and kissed me—slow, hesitant, like he was afraid I’d dissolve if he touched me too hard.

He winced as he moved, wrapping his arm around me. Pulling me closer while Bastion didn’t stop. He was still kissing me. My temple. My jaw. My neck. Every inch he could reach like he needed to memorize the taste of my skin before it was gone again.

I slid my hand beneath his jaw, guiding his face back to mine. Luca eyes shocked. I kissed him—soft, trembling—and he groaned into my mouth, gripping my waist like it was the only thing keeping him anchored.

“She’s real,” Bastion kissed my shoulder. “Luca,she’s real.”

Luca didn’t move at first. His eyes were red, bloodshot.

They didn’t stop touching me.

Soft slow kisses, aching with devotion, lips on my shoulder, my cheek, my collarbone, the inside of my wrist. Worshipping me.

By the time sleep took me, I was between them.

Bastion’s arm tight across my waist, his chest pressed to my back, his breath warm and steady against my shoulder.

Luca’s forehead rested against mine, his legs tangled withmine beneath the sheets, one hand still cupped at the side of my face like he needed proof I was still there.

AndI let them hold meas I fell asleep.

Even though it would ruin us.

Chapter Forty-Four

BASTION

The cigarette wasn’t lit. It hadn’t moved in twenty minutes. Just rolled slow between my fingers, the filter soft, paper smudged where I kept turning it.