Page 258 of Scarlet Wars
I shook my head. “I can’t fucking breathe when you’re in the same room, Emma. Let alone think. I need…”
I swallowed hard, the words fighting me, my chest tightening even as I forced myself to look at her.
“What do you need, Caden?” she whispered, and gods, she soundedterrified.
“I need some space.”
Emma’s eyes widened in pure panic. Full-body panic, the kind she hid from everyone but couldn’t hide from me. “Caden, please listen to me. Ididn’tbond with him.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“How can you say that? How can you say it doesn’t matter?”
“Because it fucking doesn’t, Emma! Because any way you spin it,” I said, my voice rising despite every effort to stay calm, “there is no one—no one—they could’ve threatened in there who would’ve made me do any of that toyou.”
She froze. Entirely.
I pushed on, because if I stopped, I wouldn’t get it out anymore.
“They could’ve had Sean in there with them, Emma. And I still wouldn’t have broken your heart. I still wouldn’t have agreed to a fucking True Bond with anyone else. And I would’ve never—ever—asked you to keep a secret relationship with me while I kept a fake public one with someone else.”
Emma went stiller than still, shoulders locked, looking like she’d taken a blade straight to the ribs.
I dragged a hand over my face, everything inside me chaotic and loud and hurting.
“And I need to figure out what that means. Away from you.”
“Bullshit.” She stepped closer, fury blazing. “We’ve been through hell together, and now you’re just walking away?”
My tone turned colder than I’d intended. “A concept you’re rather familiar with.”
Her expression faltered for a second. Like that statement landed somewhere she wasn’t ready to show me.
“Caden.”
My name on her lips almost unraveled me. Soft, broken, threaded with something dangerously close to heartbreak. “Don’t do this.”
I clenched my jaw, forcing my focus onto the heavy bag I was no longer punching holes in. I could feel her stare drilling into the side of my face.
And all I could think about was how badly I wanted her.
Not gently. Not sweetly.
I wanted to slam her up against the door she came through, drag her onto the floor, and lose myself in her until everything else disappeared. I wanted to tear her apart and put her back together with my hands, my mouth, with every piece of me I was trying to keep buried.
But I didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t let it show.
Because if I evenlookedat her for too long, I wasn’t coming back from it.
“This is insane,” she said, her voice rising again. “This is suicide, you know that, right? Taking out the United Chiefs just the two of you without translation… You’re not even bringing any backup with you?”
I shook my head, still not looking at her. “Can’t. There’s only one ring that can get us through the Layers. It’ll be hard enough fitting it aroundhis and myfingers at the same time, let alone anyone else’s.”
“Caden.” There was a quiver she didn’t try to hide.
I didn’t respond.
“Will you look at me?”
