Page 45 of Midnight of Ashes
Dexter laughed, low and ugly. “It has to suck, realizing you have no power at all.”
A low growl escaped Maddox’s throat.
I got right up in his face, making sure it was me who filled his vision. “Mad, please. I need to get out of here. Come with me.”
It took a moment for him to register me, but then he nodded jerkily, stumbling down the hall.
I kept hold of his wrist, pulling him into another empty room. It wasn’t the parlor I’d been in earlier, but it was what looked like a study with one of those antique rolltop desks and Victorian furniture.
Maddox paced the small space, struggling to breathe normally.
I stepped into his path, forcing him toward the small sofa. He stumbled backward, finally sitting. But he wasn’t there. Not really. He was a million miles away.
I framed Maddox’s face in my hands, forcing his gaze to me. “Come back to me.”
Those amber eyes flared, blazing into mine.
“Talk to me,” I begged.
Maddox let out a ragged breath. “I want to peel the skin from his body and rip him limb from limb.”
23
MADDOX
All I could feel was the fury blazing through me. It blazed through muscle and sinew, leaving behind nothing but ash in its wake. All I could see was Dexter pinning Hayden against the wall. Terrifying her. Telling her all about his plans for her future.
But I knew what could happen when the Corbetts got their hands on a female. Knew the agony they could bring.
I rarely let my rage free, but ever since the council had shown their faces at our home, I hadn’t been able to rein it in. But maybe the fracturing of my walls had already started. Begun when Hayden had walked unknowingly into our world, blowing everything sky high.
“Mad,” she whispered, her voice thick with concern.
Her hands felt like heaven on my cheeks. Her skin was so damned soft. It was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. Because Hayden was more.
Even that thought felt like a betrayal. To Niecy. Not because what we’d shared had been some earth-shattering thing, but because of what Niecy had lost. All because of me.
My gut churned, and I pulled back, out of Hayden’s touch. Losing that connection felt like a million knives slicing across my skin.
Hurt flashed in Hayden’s violet eyes, and I wished those knives were real. She didn’t deserve the fucked-up place my head was. The dark demons that lived there. I might’ve hidden them better than some of my brothers, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
Hayden lowered herself to the tiny ottoman opposite the sofa, not saying a word.
My throat constricted. “Are you all right?” I hadn’t even asked if he’d hurt her.
“Physically? I’m fine.”
But emotionally, she was anything but. The urge to pull Hayden into my arms was so strong. To cradle her against my chest and let her scent of jasmine and dew fill my nostrils.
My fingers tightened around the edge of the sofa—anything to keep them in check.
“Good.”
“But you’re not okay,” she said softly. “You haven’t been.”
I saw the hurt in Hayden’s expression again, the pain. Emotions that I’d put there. But that was what I’d always brought to the people I cared about. Agony.
Hayden pushed on, always my brave Mo Ghràidh. “But it’s more than just tonight. You disappeared.”
