Page 8 of Oblivion
“Let go of me, Kieran,” I gritted out.
“Not until you start behaving like a normal person.”
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. “Kieran.” I looked up at him. “I have a knife I’m not afraid to use.”
“You already used it on me, but if you really wanted to kill me, you would’ve done it already.”
“Kieran!” Cillian yelled out. “That’s enough.”
He pulled him away from me, and I finally felt I could breathe.
I made a terrible mistake, allowing him to think that he had a place in my life now. After everything we’d been through, all the heartache, hate, pain and destruction we caused to each other, it would’ve been the humane thing to let him down slowly. To tell him that what once was would never be again.
But no matter how many times I told him that there was no us, that there never would be, he pushed harder, trying to prove… something. But I wasn’t sure if he was trying to prove it to me or to himself. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to hold on to the past because the future terrified him, or if he truly believed that there could ever be anything else between the two of us.
“No, Cillian.” He thrashed against Kill’s hold. “She needs me. She needs us.”
God, every new word sounded more and more pathetic, and I couldn’t take this anymore.
More than a month ago, after Nikolai attacked the clubhouse, injured Storm, and shattered everything I had, Kieran had showed up at the hospital, unannounced, pretending to be a white knight, trying to push through the wall of guards stationed in front of Storm’s room. He almost got himself killed.
Kieran almost got Atlas killed while he was trying to remove him from a livid Indigo. Kieran somehow got it in his head that I was his responsibility. That the night we all spent together meant more than it actually did.
I hated unnecessary scenes. I hated it when people couldn’t accept the facts.
“Kieran,” I murmured, ready to get this over with. “Let me get one thing straight and I don’t want us to ever again go back to this topic.”
“Ophelia, come—”
“Shhhh.” I lifted my forefinger and pressed it against his lips, shutting him up immediately. “I am talking, and I would truly appreciate it if you didn’t try to interrupt me.”
Both of them had their eyes plastered on me, waiting for what I was about to say. Cillian seemed calm, collected, but I knew that there was a tempest hiding behind the facade he was putting on. Kieran, on the other hand, looked like a rabid animal, shaking as Cillian held him in place. They might have been twins, sharing almost everything, but their personalities were worlds apart. Where Kieran would always do things before thinking about the consequences or asking for permission, because he thought it was his God given right to do whatever the fuck he wanted, Cillian always thought things through. He was the planner. The one with the solutions. The quiet one, who used his words like knives, cutting through people when they least expected it.
Cillian didn’t need brute force to make people understand or do things he wanted them to do, which was why he could also understand things from my perspective. Kieran couldn’t.
“What happened between the three of us happened only because I was proving a point. To myself, to Storm, to anyone that was willing to listen. There was no love in what I did, and I thought I made myself clear that day. But in case you need another reminder, Kieran… I am not in love with you.” I accentuated every word. “I used to be, a long time ago. I used to worship the ground you walked on, but that was then, and that Ophelia doesn’t exist anymore.”
I took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye. “I will always care about you, that’s true. But love has nothing to do with it. I killed the last piece of you that lived inside of me when my knife tore through your skin, Kieran. I don’t need you behaving like a lovesick puppy whenever you see me, when there’s so much more at stake.”
“You don’t mean that,” he whispered.
“But I do. I mean every single word, and it’s time for you to fucking let me go. I am not a chess piece on this fucked-up board of redemption you’re trying to play. I am not the one you need to apologize to—Maya is.”
He winced at the mention of her name.
“I don’t have time for lost boys and redemptions. Both of you know this very well. So, you can either fucking help me get through this or you can leave. It’s up to you.”
“We’re not leaving,” Cillian said. “I told you already that I am in this with you.”
“Then fucking control him!” I blasted. “These people are not playing around. If we’re not careful, one of us is going to pay with their life, and I don’t want any of us to fall into their clutches.”
The sound of the waves crashing against the shore traveled to us, and I knew it was just a matter of time before one of the neighbors noticed us standing here.
“We need to get out of here,” I said, looking around us. “His guards will soon realize that things aren’t adding up, and whatever was in that syringe I emptied inside of Vincent won’t last forever. Now, are you in or are you out?” I looked at Kieran.
Seconds passed by as he stared at me, but it felt like an eternity before he spoke again. “I’m in.”
“Good.” I nodded. “Now help me carry him to the trunk. Kill.” I looked at Cillian. “I need you to take Vincent to the cabin. I’ll meet you there tomorrow or the day after at the latest.”
