Page 32 of Just One Night
“I’ll do my best,” I say. “He likes to live in my head sometimes.”
“Fair enough.” He taps the door frame, nodding before he leaves.
All the fiery anger I was holding onto fizzles out, my heart breaking for Saint. When he rescued me, he freed me from the physical torture Samuel inflicted. When he soothed my nightmares, he saved me from the mental repercussions of those events. But Saint? He’s still being tortured by his twin. At every turn, Samuel threatens to ruin whatever Saint values most. His torture won’t see an end until Samuel meets his.
A new form of exhaustion weighs over my entire body. If I could put an end to this, if I could save Saint in the way he’s saved me so many times, I would. But how? Especially when he doesn’t think he’s worth saving?
CHAPTER 13
Saint
My knuckles sink beneath Dagon’s ribs, the blow hard enough to make him huff.
Dagon quickly dodges my second attempt, the two of us locked in a training session that’s lasted over an hour. He drew the short straw out of the group because no one wanted to volunteer to train with me with the mood I’m in.
The mood I’ve been in since we came out of stasis. It only worsened after Samuel’s betrayal—him imprisoning me and kidnapping the princess. It got even worse after we’d found Aurora, and worsestillafter he’d threatened Auroraagain. Claiming that mark on her neck was his, not mine.
My deepest fear. My biggest regret.
She deserves so much better than me. Certainly, better than him. And that phone number he slipped in my pocket did nothing in the way to help us track his location. Ransom had tried everything, but it was untraceable.
“Try to remember I’m not your enemy, will you?” Dagon lands a hit to my gut, and I double over.
The momentary shock has my mind flashing. Visions overtake everything else—me in a Victorian suit, Aurora in a red dress with corsets and skirts I haven’t seen in ages. Myfingers are steady as I untie the corset slowly, dragging out the moment?—
A hard crack to my jaw has my head snapping to the right.
“Where are you at?” Dagon retreats after the hit, my focus coming back to him.
“Right here.” I advance, my bare feet barely touching the mat in the training room as I lunge for Dagon.
He escapes my attack, but just barely. Fucker used his wind abilities to push me just a hair to the left.
“Cheater,” I grumble.
He laughs. “I like my head right where it is, thank you very much. You look like you’re about to tear it clean off.” He glances behind me. “Talon, come over here and help me.”
I whirl around, noticing my shifter friend watching from the other side of the room. His eyes flash that animalistic yellow for a moment before he shakes his head. “I promised Cassandra I’d be presentable for repast tonight. She’d kill me. Orhemight, from the looks of him.”
I flip Talon off, then focus on Dagon again. “Two can play that power game,” I fire back. “You know that right?” I reach for my ability, more than ready to fill his head with a vision that will render him useless. I can make him live out his biggest fear—him locked in a concrete room with no access to the elements he loves so much.
But instead of connecting withthatreality, my power links straight to the one from before—I’ve untied Aurora’s corset and her dress pools at her feet. She’s in dark lace stockings, flimsy garter belts attached to ruffled underwear, and a matching brassiere barely holds back her luscious breasts.
Another hit to my face has me shifting back to the present. Dagon drops his balled-up fists. “You’re not here. You’re somewhere else. Perhaps with the redhead upstairs?”
I blink a few times, unable to stop shifting from him to the period scene and back. Why am I seeing this?
“Saint,” he says, sympathy coating his tone as he steps closer to me. “You know you’re my brother too, right? Iknowyou. Whether you want to admit it or not. I understand why you’ve got walls. The secret you had to bear, the vow you made your dying mother to protect Samuel at all costs, even from himself. I can’t imagine walking that line alone. The weight of it.”
It feels like that weight crushes my lungs.
“You have more reason than any one of us to keep everyone at a distance,” he continues. “To fear bonding yourself wholly and completely to someone else and have it end up in betrayal again. And I’m the one who always said having a mate would be a weakness or something hunters should never have due to the severity of our jobs, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Clearly.” He visibly swallows. “You know I’ll always back you. No matter what you decide. But, check your instincts. What are they telling you?”
The familiar battle to fight every urge I have creeps up the second I even think about allowing myself tofeelanything.
More regency-era scenes play out in my mind like a movie, starring myself and Aurora. It sets my blood on fire. I focus on those visions invading my mind, realizing exactly why it’s happening.
“I…” I snap my eyes open, glancing from Dagon to Talon and back again. “I have to go.”
