12
There was one thing I knew very well about Ren. He was definitely the possessive, jealous type. I had seen glimpses of it when I would meet up with Caspian, and he always looked like he wanted to murder my ex whenever his name was mentioned.
Last night, Alex had secretly crawled into my bed, and Ren had just watched me hug him close and kiss his neck. Yeah, that wasn’t going to sit well with the over-protective demon.
“Get up,” he snapped under his breath. “We have things to discuss.”
Wide awake, I jumped out of bed and searched for something to change into. “Alex, why are you in my bed?”
Alex blinked a few times, as if confused why I was even asking. “I couldn’t sleep, but I felt a lot more comfortable the last time we slept together. Since we did it once before, I didn’t think you’d mind if we did it again.”
My face burned, mortifyingly hot. I couldn’t imagine how all this sounded to Ren. “Y-you can’t just crawl into my bed, Alex! We only did it that one time because there was only one mattress and it was freezing cold. I-it’s not appropriate to do otherwise.”
“But you wanted him in your bed?” His gaze traveled toward Ren, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
“What? How would you—”
“You mumbled his name when I slipped under the covers. If he can sleep with you, why can’t I?”
“Alex …” There was a lot about the world this man needed to learn.
Even though he was nineteen, he had the mentality of a child far younger.
Having been used by the Syndicate his entire life, never knowing how to live outside that square concrete cube, it made sense that he didn’t understand how the world worked.
He didn’t want to sleep with me romantically, but he was certainly trying to claim me in his own way.
He had grown attached to the first person who had shown him kindness, and he wanted all of it. Sharing with Ren wasn’t an option.
“Ren, wait!” He was already walking down the hallway. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize … don’t blame him. It’s not his fault. He didn’t mean anything by it.” Ren rolled his eyes and stormed down the stairs.
Alex might have been a bit clingy toward me, but hopefully Ren wasn’t dumb enough to believe there was anything between us. Knowing Ren, he probably thought I’d done this to get back at him for not staying last night.
I left Alex still tangled in my blankets and darted to the bathroom, quickly fixing my hair and brushing my teeth. After tugging on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeve shirt, I headed downstairs, where Ren and Ivy were already in the kitchen.
“Good morning, Theo!” Ivy brushed her wild black hair behind her thick ivory horns and smiled. “Ren made breakfast.”
“He … what?” I stared down at the pastries sitting inside a pink box, but there was also a bowl of fruit, scrambled eggs, and bacon. Guilt swelled in my chest. He made me breakfast? “Since when did you learn how to cook?” I narrowed a suspicious gaze at Ren.
“It’s not like I had money in the Nether to eat out every day.” He shoved a bowl of fruit across the counter toward me—a bowl of fruit that happened to be missing blueberries.
My eyes started to water, remembering the first time Ren had tried to make me breakfast. Knowing he couldn’t cook, I had specifically requested a bowl of fruit with no blueberries, and when I’d found him in the kitchen, he was picking them all out of the pre-made fruit salad for me.
“Thank you, Ren. This looks amazing.”
It was then that Alex bounded into the kitchen, still wearing my baggy sweatpants and shirt since he had no other clothes to wear.
He stopped at the sight of the bowl on the table, curiosity pulling him closer.
After a moment’s hesitation, he reached out and picked up a piece of fruit like he wasn’t entirely sure he was allowed to.
When he bit into it, his eyes widened. A bright smile spread across his face as the tangy sweetness burst over his tongue.
“Mmm. That’s good,” he said, almost like he was testing the words. “I know what strawberries are, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually had one before.”
A part of me wanted to just give the bowl to Alex, but the glower on Ren’s face had me thinking otherwise. Instead, I slapped Alex’s hand away.
“Stop picking at other people’s food with your hands. Go sit down at the table and I’ll bring you your own.”
For a moment, a stunned expression crossed Alex’s face, but when he realized I was the one who would be feeding him, he did what I said without hesitation.
The kitchen was usually a bright, crisp space with white cabinets and polished counters glowing under the overhead lights.
But the storm outside had swallowed the room in shadowy darkness.
Rain hammered the windows hard enough to shudder the glass, and the wind roared around the house in violent, punishing gusts that made the ceiling lights sway.
Ivy continued to wipe down the counters, while Ren took his plate and sat far away from Alex at the kitchen table. I made it a point to sit next to Ren instead of Alex, but the oblivious kid just got up and moved closer to me.
It was then that Stella shuffled into the kitchen. Still in her pajamas, she yawned as she scratched her head and ran her fingers through the red tips of her black hair to comb out some tangles.
Stella had a sixth sense for pinpointing when something was off. She took one look at me, squirming in my chair, Alex uncomfortably close as he beamed an adoring smile at me, and Ren who looked about ready to stab him with his fork.
“Oh, this is going to be good.” She took a pastry and sat at the head of the table, waiting for the drama to unfold.
“Alex, eat.” I felt like I was taking care of a six-year-old, not a grown-ass man.
For a while, we ate in awkward silence until I couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Ren, I—”
A searing pain suddenly tore through my chest. At exactly the same time, Alex’s eyes rolled back and he crumpled to the floor.
Ren sprang forward, bracing me, while Stella and Ivy knelt over Alex.
I screamed as Caspian’s magic twisted inside me like jagged metal shards, scraping and cutting through my ribs, leaving a raw ache in its wake.
The sensation was cold, brutal, and unrelenting, and I feared it would shred me from the inside out.
“What the fuck is happening?” Ren panicked, clutching me in his arms. I felt his magic pulsing into me and trying to calm me down, but it only angered Caspian’s magic even more.
“D-don’t!” I let out a strangled grunt, clutching my stomach as waves of agony ripped through me. Emotions flooded into me, but they weren’t mine. Fear. Rage. Desperation. The feelings crashed into me so violently that my entire body was shaking.
The tear we made in the veil was being ripped open. Phantoms were forcing their way through. I could feel it. Not as a sound or a sight, but as a wound. Thousands of voices pressed against the edges of my mind.
My magic writhed beneath my skin, responding to the chaos. The living magic that bound the veil together was unraveling, and every phantom slipping through the breach tugged at that connection. Their pain became my pain. Their terror echoed through my chest. Their fury burned through my veins.
I gasped for air as another wave hit. Grief. Loneliness. Hatred so intense it felt like acid. The pressure built behind my ribs until I thought I might break apart with it.
“They're coming,” I choked out, my fingers digging into my stomach as if I could somehow hold myself together. “God … there are so many of them.”