Page 35 of The Villain's Beast

“It’s an apology,” I told him truthfully, “for all the things that are yet to come.”

Luca cursed under his breath, steadying himself as we came to a stop in the center of the clearing. Fletcher and the other two stopped ten feet away from us, and I chose instead to focus on the way Daren’s eyes widened for the briefest second when he saw Luca beside me and not a random first year initiate. The weight of Fletcher’s stare was impossible to ignore for long though.

He always knew how to suck the air out of a room.

Or in this case, a forest.

“My oath is sworn,” he said, voice deeper than I recalled.

“As is mine.”

“I offer you the proof of my charge,” he said, fixating his stare on me with such a weighted intent I worried I would collapse the way Luca had done on our walk out.

“I accept.”

Daren pressed his palm against the middle of the third man’s back, giving him a shove into the empty space between our delegations.

“I offer you the proof of my charge.” I said the line expected of me, and Luca stepped forward without being told.

“I accept,” Fletcher rumbled, his piercing blue stare still focused on me. Life had either been good to him, or not. I didn’t know him enough anymore to tell the difference.

Luca and the other man changed places, and it was impossible to not see the aching and desperate love between Luca and Daren. Even though they couldn’t touch, their bodies swayed close, almost like Daren could sense the guilt weighing Luca down and trying to bury him in the ground.

Had Fletcher ever felt that way about me?

No, it would have been impossible because instead of helping me stand, he’d chosen to dig the pit and throw me into it himself.

“Take him back to the house,” Fletcher demanded. “I’ll catch up.”

Daren and Luca were quick to leave, and I hoped he’d taken me seriously when I told him to absorb the moments. I needed his discretion, but not for nothing.

“Come,” I said to the man whose name I still didn’t know.

I’d ask him later, but not in front of Fletcher or anyone from the Thorns.

Tearing myself away from Fletcher was like ripping off a Band-Aid, the way he’d dragged his stare from my toes to my hair, up my arms and down my neck, lingering on the insignia Luca had just seared over my heart. The pain from the brand had hurt so much for a split second and then…nothing. The brain was a miraculous thing, blocking my receptors from registering the temperature, the charred skin. On the other hand, Fletcher’s body bore no visible scars or marks from his initiation, and I tried to imagine what could have been worse than talking your most trusted confidant into marking you for life.

The man came close to me, shorter than Luca, shorter than Fletcher. He blinked up at me with tired, angry eyes, took one step past me, one step away from Fletcher, then he came to a stop.

“Gideon,” Fletcher said my name like an apology and it made me want to rip him limb from limb.

“You don’t get to speak to me with that voice,” I warned, pivoting away from him and giving his offering an urge toward the edge of the clearing.

“Gideon,” he said again, tone less forgiving.

“The Gideon you knew is dead, Sinclair.” I threw the barb over my shoulder as I headed home with the worn-down offering by my side. “And you should know that. After all, you’re the one who turned me into The Beast.”

Chapter 24

Daren

The top of Luca’s hand brushed against mine, warm and sure as I knew him to be.

“What are you doing here?” I asked under my breath.

“Gideon knows about us.”

I grabbed his hand to pull him close, but quickly remembered myself and let go. Crossing my arms in front of my chest to stop from touching him, I kept walking back toward the house.