Page 261 of Scarlet Wars
Knowing him, there was only one thing that could get his thoughts this tangled up, and it wasn’t his First Offensive, no matter how tragic that loss had been.
The engines hummed beneath us—almost soothing if not for the company—and the soft cabin lights washed the private jet in a muted gold.
Nevada stretched somewhere far ahead of us through the night sky, but the only thing I could see through the window’s reflection was Colt looking like he’d swallowed a live grenade.
And apparently planned to sit on it until it exploded.
I exhaled, long and slow, then finally said what had been circling my mind for the past ten minutes.
“Look,” I started, folding forward with my elbows on my knees, giving him my full attention whether he wanted it or not. “I don’t know what’s going on between you and Emma, but the last thing I want is to be another reason she’s unhappy. And I really need you to focus on what we’re about to do. So just to clear things up: you do know the True Bond between her and me is fake, right? She healed us from it within seconds of us forming it. It was only to deceive the Chiefs.”
His response came clipped, flat, and immediate, without even bothering to look at me.
“I know.”
I eased back into my white leather seat with a slow exhale. “Right. So why are you still acting like someone force-fed you a handful of poisonous hedgehogs and then told you to shit it back out without anesthesia?”
That finally earned me something: Caden shot me a glare sharp enough to peel paint.
Had I been a lesser man, that look might’ve scared me.
A little.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
I shrugged, crossed one leg over the other, and translated myself a coffee right before we crossed the national border and flew into the bubble. “We’ve got about two hours to kill before we reach Nevada. Try me.”
He leaned back, tipped his head against the seat, and sighed like the universe itself had personally offended him. “Can’t believe I’m even considering discussing this with you.”
“Yeah, well. Fucking likewise, asshole.”
He huffed out a humorless sound—almost a laugh, almost a snarl—before running a hand over his face.
“What she did…” His voice dropped, rough and frayed at the edges. “Breaking up with me. Faking the bond with you. Even if it was after losing Saoirse, and to save Nino, I never would’ve done that to her. And I just… Fuck.” He shook his head and stared out the window again. “I don’t know. My emotions are all over the place, which is…extremely out of character for me.”
“So?” I lifted a brow. “Only means she’s less of a selfish bastard than you. Think we all knew that already.”
He didn’t so much as twitch. “Figured you wouldn’t understand.”
I made a point of taking another sip just so I could snort into my cup. “Oh no,” I drawled, “my girlfriend cares about other people. What a terrible, catastrophic trait for her to have.”
Caden finally turned his head toward me, narrowing his eyes into razor–thin slits. “You know, sarcasm doesn’t really suit you.”
“And being an idiot doesn’t suit you,” I snapped back, patience gone. “You really want to repeat my mistakes, Colt? Be the guy who only loves the parts of her that make your life easier and ignores the rest? Because let me tell you something: if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Emma, it’s that shecares.About a lot of people. And that’s a huge fucking part of who she is, so you’d better learn to embrace it instead of whining about it.”
His jaw flexed, but he didn’t reply.
Which meant he heard me.
I leaned forward again, my coffee now forgotten. “She loves you, Caden. More than she ever loved me. And knowing her, she probably has for longer than either of us realized. So here’s the real question: do you want to be worthy of it?”
That finally got him. His gaze lifted, stripped of every last layer of bullshit.
“Sounds like you’re letting her go,” he said quietly.
I let out a slow breath, feeling the weight of it settle in my chest. “She was never mine to hold on to.” Another inhale. “So, you do what I never could. You earn her love. You fucking earnher.”
Caden glanced away, and mumbled under his breath, “Can’t believe I’m taking notes from James fucking Walker,” like the universe had personally wronged him by forcing this moment into existence.
