Chapter 14 #3
I sighed, eyeing the long stairwell. “Come on, drunk boy. Up, up, the steps.”
When we finally reached the top, passing the sleeping grandfather clock, Riot directed me to his room. I shoved him onto his unmade bed. “I remember this room,” I said. “You brought me here, remember?”
“The first time I felt your tits.” He sighed. “Great memory. Can I feel again? Please? I’m sauced, it’ll make me feel better.”
“You’re a pig.” I hid my smile, kneeling to unlace his shoes. After I pulled them off, I pushed him back onto his pillow. “Sleep, asshole. I’ll berate you later.”
He reached out and wrapped his arms around me until I was flush against him, chest to chest. “Stay with me? Please?”
I struggled lightly. He was different, sadder…
or maybe he was a sad drunk. Though, the previous time I’d seen him inebriated was when he put on that horrible play during dinner.
Reacting my sister’s capture. Yes, Riot truly was a jerk.
But… lying in bed, sad and helpless… There was something endearing about him, too.
Despite myself, my pride, and my questions, Riot always drew me into him.
“Well…” I hesitated. “Okay.” With a satisfied grunt, Riot rolled me over and pulled the blanket over us. I settled into the crook of his arm, my heart racing at the contact. “I should have given you a bath first—you stink.”
“Regretting not getting me naked, are you? By the way, I seem to remember you not smelling fresh as a summer daisy when we first met, rat.”
I fiddled with a button on his shirt. “I can’t imagine it’s too hard to get you naked. Furthermore, I smelt like hard work that day because I was fighting for mine and my sister’s lives. Your odor is alcohol-induced… I’d say several days’ worth?”
“I don’t recall when it began… somewhere between Dracula and Jaws.”
“Films?”
He nodded, eyes closed.
“Magic gathered from other realms, huh? That’s impressive.”
“Didn’t know it was possible to impress you, rat.”
I lifted a shoulder. “Maybe you’re just not that impressive.”
Riot choked on a laugh, and I hid my grin under his arm.
For a moment, my sister wasn’t missing. For a beat, my sister didn’t hate me.
For a small second, my life wasn’t a patchwork quilt made of squares of gloom and tragedy and drudgery.
Riot’s fingers casually played with the half-white side of my hair. “Are you okay, Rumor?”
His question and the way his tone dropped into something serious caught me off guard. “I’m fine,” I answered quickly.
“We both know that’s a lie. I don’t suppose anyone is ever actually fine. You, less so than others, I’d imagine.”
I stayed silent, staring into the dim room. Only slivers of daylight escaped the thin breaks of the drawn curtains. Like he hadn’t opened them once since I’d left. My voice cracked. “Prism…”
“I know.”
“And you,” I continued, pushing down the unwanted emotions. “You didn’t come looking for me.”
“Did you want me to?”
“No.”
“More lies? Come on, rat. Aren’t we past that by now?” Riot continued to twirl my hair between his fingers. The gentle contact was… distracting. “How’s your head?”
“Fine—” I corrected myself. “It doesn’t hurt as bad now.”
“That wither battle and the aftermath really took you down. Then again with Spade, hm?”
“Why did you bury me?” I asked, rising to lean on my elbow so I could look at his face. “After everything… how could you do that to me?”
“How could you run off with my brother after everything?”
“Why, are you jealous? Answer my question, Riot. Why’d you put me in the ground and leave me there?”
Riot opened one eye to glare at me. “Why don’t you go ask Spade? Or does he only get sex and not an interrogation?”
“You’re an asshole,” I spat, sitting up. I made to climb over him and leave, when he grabbed my arms.
“Where do you think you’re going, little rat? Now that I’ve got you right where I want you, you think I’m going to let you throw a fit and leave? Come now, I think you know me better than that by now.”
I jerked at his hold on my arms, but he pinned me in place as I straddled him.
“Let me go,” I ordered through gritted teeth.
Magic tingled in my fingertips splayed out atop Riot’s abs, begging me to use it…
for killing or for fucking, I wasn’t sure.
My magic, it turns out, was a dark and twisted thing.
Riot’s own magic trickled down my arms and swirled around my belly button.
He quirked a smile, as if he were aware of just what our magics were doing together.
“I like the feel of your weight on top of me. So small, so ferocious, with skin so soft…” He brushed his thumbs over my wrists as he continued to clutch them tight.
My breath caught in my throat and my lips parted.
He stared up at me with dark intensity, his eyelids hooded, and gaze dropping to my mouth.
I tried to pull away again, but he held me steady.
His strength and power mixed with the caress of his magic.
All at once, all of him, was stoking the flame of my existence.
Fanning the sparks into something lethal and all-consuming.
Dare I touch his fire again? When the last time it burnt me and left me forever changed?
If I kept dancing in Riot’s blaze… I feared my heart would be left in ashes.