Page 65 of Undone

“No.”

“Yes.” I can feel his too-sharp canines like daggers just from the sound of his smile.

“C’mon,” Holden says. “Don’t rile her up too much, Tor.”

Tor? I look up at Toren, still too close, his shoulder like a wall against my line of sight.

“Besides,” Holden continues, leaning forward and grabbing my attention with a glittering smile. “We’re on a date.”

We are?

Something bubbles in my stomach, face flushing hot.

Is this a date? No—it’s . . . a study date. That’s what Holden called it, which in some ways I guess is a date. But is he teasing Toren with it, or is it a tease to me?

I know Holden enough now, trust him enough, not to try to embarrass me. But I’ve seen how he interacts with others; he often even flirts with Toren as a way to show his care.

Trying to school my features doesn’t work. My hand is already gripping the table, face flushed, eyes wide.

And Toren hasn’t looked away from me for a moment.

Until now.

His gaze shoots across at Holden, eyebrows arched. I can feel the anger like it’s my own, the same way I’ve always felt. Toren has always been the only person whose emotions I never needed to guess at. When I was younger, I thought we were attached somehow, like our souls were really one split into two people. That it was incredible we’d found each other so fast.

Now, it’s hard not to feel the same, even knowing what I know now.

Even if he never wants to be mine again, I think part of me will always be his, permanently attached, unable to detach. Unwilling to.

“What the fuck are you playing at, Dougherty?”

There’s nothing but pure venom in his tone. Holden visibly flinches, eyes breaking from me to Toren, his entire body sinking in surrender.

His head is shaking, blond curls ruffling, but Toren seems almost lost—between this moment and a memory.

“It’s not fucking funny,” Toren snaps. “I told you not to fucking play with her.”

“Toren—I’m not. I swear—”

“Hey,” I say, my hand landing on the massive span of Toren’s thigh. My palm feels ridiculously small against the black fabric and the thick muscle beneath, tensed and coiled. “He wasn’t being mean. He was just joking.”

Toren looks down at me, features softening slightly, as if he can’t even bear to look at me in anger. He shakes his head again, eyes clearing, before he looks back at Holden.

“Toren—”

“I’ve gotta go.”

He’s up and out of the booth, and inevitably the store, before either of us can say another word.

Chapter 26

Lily

“You’re not eating?” Carson’s annoyed voice sounds like the pounding of a drum—or something more disruptive. A scratch to a familiar record, skipping and ratcheting up my anxiety enough that I hike up my shoulders.

One of my dad’s mandatory dinners. I tried to get out of it, citing my math grades as a reason to stay in and study. But as usual no one listened to me.

“Your dad is going to think I didn’t feed you.”