“Give me one good reason not to carve your tongue out of your goddamn throat,” he said, tightening his grip on my wrist.
My eyes flicked to Nathem, and to my surprise, he didn’t flinch. He met Thay’s gaze only with a clear warning of his own.
He knew something that I didn’t.
Thay stilled, grinding his molars the way he always did when logic and the sudden urge to pulverize tore through his nervous system. When he tensed, the slow ache Wolfe had put between my ribs clawed into a tidal wave.
Screw their secrets. I was over it.
“Stop,” I snapped, shoving him hard enough in the chest to make him step back. “I am just picking up a few things from the utility closet,” I added quietly, immediately feeling the distance between our bodies.
Despite the festering sense of betrayal that always came with seeing both of them with other women, and the burning urge to torch his cage to the ground, everything inside me screamed tofill the chasm, to press my face into the center of Thay’s chest and breathe.
It was a strange kind of curse. Both beautiful and terrifying.
It was love, but not the sort I could name out loud. That was forbidden.
I lowered my gaze and slid to my feet, noting the pattern of crimson dotting the edge of my Chucks. Like all the men here, I had blood on my hands, but it was put there by a different type of violence.
I sighed, breathing in one last trace of his scent before heading for the door.
“Is the key still on your desk?” I asked Wolfe, barely meeting his eyes. I did not want to become lost in them. He was her labyrinth now.
“Yeah,” he nodded, and I didn’t miss the way his gaze twitched when his hand reached out for me before falling short.
He didn’t get to touch me.
“Kay,” I mostly said to myself, rounding the exit and stalking down the hall toward Wolfe’s den.
I eyed the golden knob looming in the distance and couldn’t bear the idea of walking into a world where I was no longer welcome. I didn’t want to see it: the bed they fucked in, the smell of their bodies tangled in his scent, the thought of him pulsing into her the way he had done with me hours before.
I swallowed, listening to my footsteps echo down the corridor like a fading heartbeat, haunting the things she loved most.
I veered left up the staircase, sweeping past his bedroom. I couldn’t make myself small enough to crawl through his rib cage to retrieve my key to freedom. It was a terrible metaphor, and I wasn’t ready to face it.
“Daph?” Lolly grinned at me from the top. She wore a long shirt and a pair of pink underwear cut high on her thighs. “Did you see Kaden down there?”
Of all the club wives, I liked her the most. She taught kindergarten by day and fucked a demon after dark. We were practically soulmates, only she knew how to do it better.
“Yeah, he’s down there,” I mouthed, patting her shoulder as I walked by.
“Wait. Were you with Wolfe last night?” She squinted into the sun, yawning. “I thought I saw him with Lyla.”
“You did.”
“Shit, Daph. I didn’t know you played in threes.”
A sick, yellow feeling hit my stomach.
“I don’t.” I turned to face her fully. “I only just found out about her.”
“Oh,” she bit her lip, searching for what to say next.
Lolly was dark magic, like winter in a hailstorm. With her round curves and fierce expression, she was the closest thing to real life in the Underworld.
“Sorry, love,” she murmured, reading my expression.
“Don’t be. I mean, it was never going to be me.”