Page 83 of Worse Fates

“Oi!” Golden rips himself out of my hold and charges into Rurik. But my brother doesn’t budge. “Get fucking off him!”

“Rurik, stop!” Ramy shouts.

I hook an arm back around Golden and pull him away, not trusting Rurik not to lash out.

“Apollo Rao?” Rurik demands again, shaking Kai.

“Enough.” I drop Golden on his feet and grab Rurik’s shoulder, trying to pry him off Kai.

Kai’s voice shakes as he speaks, “Rurik, what—”

There’s a sound like a clap of thunder on a cloudless day as Rurik’s fist smacks into the island—sending marble flying. “ANSWER ME DAMNIT!”

“What are you doing!” Ramy yells.

The scent of Kai’s fear eclipses all others as he shields his face, and sinks low, trying to make himself smaller. Golden, on the other hand, only gets angrier.

“Get your fucking hands off him, you bastard!” Golden screams, slipping around my arm to attack Rurik with his fists.

Rurik snaps his head to Golden, baring his fangs. His strong hands remain twisted in Kai’s shirt.

Losing the little patience I had, I rip Rurik away from Kai and Golden and send him flying through the window. The glass shatters, broken beams creak before completely crumbling.

Kai’s labored breathing is the only sound. Nobody moves an inch as all eyes stay locked on the dark hole that used to be a window.

“What the hell is going on?” Golden’s voice, despite his anger, is hushed. Like Rurik has become a monster, and speaking too loudly will draw his attention.

Then, Rurik’s hand slaps on the edge of the broken window, Golden and Kai jumping. I take a step forward, Ramy moves to shield the other two.

A river of blood runs down the wall as the glass cuts deep into Rurik’s skin, even as he crushes it to gradually pull himselfup. For a frozen moment, as if the cold outside had taken Rurik in its clutches, he stands there—face hollow and haunted.

I keep my gaze trained on him, watching for any sudden movements as he steps back into the kitchen, glass crunching under foot. The sparkling window pieces embedded into his face, neck and arms clink to the floor—pushed out by his vampiric healing. And before our eyes, his skin stitches back together.

“He was dead…” Rurik mutters to himself. “He was dead…”

“Lucero! What is happening?” Golden demands.

“Apollo is his dead mate,” I tell him, eyes locked on my brother’s lost expression. “And the blood mages seem to have him.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Golden

Lucero drives, Rurik next to him in front. Kai sits wedged between me and Ramy, and the whole ride I’m wishing I could stick a dagger in Rurik’s back, the fucker.

Kai’s starting to crumble at the edges after, well, everything. I’d noticed it when we made the quick trip to grab Lucero’s flowers. Now, after Rurik scared the shit outta him, Kai can’t seem to stop nervously patting his sandy blonde braids on his left side.

“Kai, I really didn’t mean to scare you. But you have to understand if your Apollo really is mine, the one who died fifty years ago, I’ll get a second chance with him. Understand that, please.” Rurik’s voice quivers, like a man dying of thirst within reach of a drop of water.

And really, it sounds like he’s begging the universe, fate, fucking who knows what, instead of actually trying to apologise to my friend.

Kai nods huddled low as if he’s still trying to make himself smaller.

“I get it,” he whispers. Then he glances toward the window, made a mirror by the dark, and startles at the sight of his own anxious hair-touching. He has to physically force his palm into his lap, clasping it tight.

Ramy glances at me, a question in his gaze, but I shake my head. If Kai wants to talk about his nervous tic, he will, not that he ever does. I grasp his still fidgeting fingers, knowing that if I even hint at it, he’ll only get more stressed, so instead I offer him the quiet weight of my comfort and inwardly curse Rurik.

Ramy, following my lead, hooks his elbow around Kai’s.

Slowly, inch by inch, the tension doesn’t vanish completely, but it loosens its hold on my friend.