Page 86 of Scarlet Wars
“You’re a fucking coward, Emma.”
The door swung open with an echoing bang before I even realized I’d moved. My pulse stayed steady. My hands didn’t shake. But the way his head snapped toward me told me he’d already figured out exactly how this was going to end.
I stepped inside, my gaze sweeping the room, taking in Emma’s wide stance and his stormy glare. I locked on James. “What the hell is going on here?”
The latter didn’t even flinch, his focus back on Emma. “Stay out of this, Colt. It’s none of your business.”
My jaw flexed once before I spoke again. “You talk to her like that again, and I’ll fuckingendyou.”
That finally got his attention. His glare shifted to me, full of venom. “She’s notyoursto defend.”
My vision narrowed to only him. “She’s not yours toinsult.”
“Caden.”
Emma’s voice rang out, firm, carrying a calm authority that made me pause. I turned toward her, meeting her eyes, and what I saw there wasn’t fear or gratitude, it was fire held in restraint, the kind of strength that didn’t ask for help but expected to be heard.
“I canhandlethis.”
Every instinct screamed at me to stay, to end this bullshit right here and now, but the quiet determination in her nod made me hesitate.
My fist clenched as I forced myself to take a step back, but not before I pinned James with one last warning.
“You touch her without her consent,” I said, my threat razor-sharp, “and I’ll make sure it’s the last thing you ever do.”
Without waiting for his reply, I turned and portaled out, the taste of restraint bitter in my mouth.
Pacing my dorm,I tried to calm myself down, but it was useless. Every fucking fiber of my being still roared at me to go back. To rip James’s head clean off, grab Emma, and portal her straight to Crown.
To hell with the Human World, the Chiefs, Cyclos, this mission, to hell with everything.
My chest heaved as I dragged a hand through my hair, my pulse hammering like I’d just sprinted a marathon. This shit was becoming too much.
Seeing her every day, so close and yet completely out of reach, was nothing short of torture. Not being able to kiss her, touch her, make her mine, it was eating me alive from the inside out.
And James? The asshole didn’t deserve her. Not after the way he treated her, the way he looked at her like she was some broken thing he needed to fix. She wasn’t broken. She was a godsdamn force of nature.
And I was an idiot for thinking I could keep pretending I didn’t want her more than my next breath.
The door flew open, slamming into the wall with enough force to rattle the hinges. Emma stormed in, her energy crackling like static, wild with frustration.
“You!” she yelled, all high-pitched and furious. “Mister ‘grow some balls and talk to Walker,’ were you applying for a Nobel Prize in terrible advice? Because congratulations, it seems like you won!”
Right. Not entirely undeserved.
I tried to suppress a smirk, already feeling ten times lighter now that she was in my room. “I guess a career switch to relationship-guru is officially out of the question?”
She rolled her eyes, crossed the room in a few smooth strides, and dropped onto my bed with a dramatic sigh. Her hair spilled over her shoulder as she flopped back, one arm draped across her forehead like the weight of the world was trying to crush her. “You’d still make a better one than James.”
Fuck, she looked good on my bed.
“That bad, huh?”
She let out a laugh—dry and humorless—her hands raking through her hair before sitting back up. “Well, we’re definitely not getting back together.”
Oh no. I’m devastated.
“He called me a coward for not wanting to fake the bond. As if placating the Chiefs doesn’t makehimthe coward.”
