Chapter 15 Eris
Idon’t ask where we’re going.
I don’t care.
Jace drives like a man with nowhere to go but somewhere urgent to be, like every red light is a suggestion. Silas rides shotgun, his jaw ticking rhythmically. Kieran sits beside me in the backseat, watching but not hovering. There’s no pity when he looks at me.
Just… calculated tracking, as if he’s memorizing the way I breathe.
I think we all need an outlet to release the lingering adrenaline from such an epically fucked up night… Though, I can guarantee their night feels fucked up for a totally different reason that mine.
I’ll just agree with their reason until I can estimate how freaked out they’re going to be when I murder Daniel.
Honestly, I’m still trying to decide how I feel about this.
I won’t break or fold in on myself and hide. However, I lean my head against the window and let the city smear past us, streetlights flashing gold against the dark interior of the car.
By the time we reach the edge of the warehouse district, the silence is its own creature with claws and a prehensile tail.
But I say nothing as Jace parks the car in their garage, and Silas opens my door.
They aren’t treating me like glass.
They treat me like gravity.
Everything orbits around getting me inside their converted warehouse.
And for the first time in what feels like forever, I let myself go numb for a few precious minutes.
Someone puts a glass of water in my hand as they lead me to the couch. I hold it, but I don’t drink it. I’m not thirsty. My pulse has already settled into a calm I shouldn’t have. I balance on a tightrope, teetering left and right.
I’m tired, yet I’m wide awake.
Kieran kneels in front of me, forearms resting on his thighs, eyes locked on mine. I can’t decipher exactly what he’s searching for, but he seems satisfied, giving me a small smile.
“You’re safe now,” he states, like I need to hear it.
And maybe I do.
Safe.
I let that word sit on my tongue for a breath I don’t quite take. Laughter feels inappropriate since they don’t really know much about me… But it’s a struggle.
“I was supposed to be safe before.”
No one argues.
Silas takes the chair across from me, elbows on knees, gaze hard and unblinking. “He won’t come near you again.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” His voice doesn’t waver. “We all do.”
I turn to Jace because I’ve seen him in the wild more than Silas and Kieran. And I have questions I need answered before I just blindly sit in their space and let myself feel any safer than I do right now.
Jace hasn’t stopped pacing back and forth across the loft, like he’s trying to burn holes into the floor because the violence is still thrumming under his skin.
“Did you follow me before tonight?” I ask.
He freezes, but he doesn’t face me. I think he’s waiting for someone else to reply, though they clearly see that I’m asking him.
“Jace,” I call out, not soft or harsh… Just a tone that brings his attention to me.
“Yes,” he says, finally turning to look at me.
I nod once in acceptance. It wasn’t a guess. I already had my suspicions, and I knew where I was going to start my hunt…
This morning.
After I woke up.
Before Daniel broke in and ruined the entire night.
“And what about you two?” I inquire, glancing between Kieran and Silas.
“We’ve always been close,” Kieran answers, steady and honest. “Once you downloaded the app… We started watching more closely.”
I don’t ask why.
The answer is already in the room with us. It appears as an elephant none of us seem to have the willpower to talk about.
But I need to say it.
I curl my legs underneath me and pull the blanket off the back of the couch, draping it around me. I’m not cold. It’s just that everything in me feels too exposed.
“This was supposed to be fake,” I whisper. “You were supposed to be fake.”
“The app was. We were.” Silas leans forward, voice dropping until it reaches into my chest, twisting around my core. “You made it real. You pulled us beyond the algorithm.”
Thick silence falls over us again, charged and alive, waiting for someone to touch the wire so it can zap us. My skin buzzes through the tension, mind spinning with no destination in sight.
My thoughts are just too loud.
Inside me, something feral paces.
It blends seamlessly into the shadows, licking its talons as it swats at its prize. The hunt is over, but there’s no boredom looming.
These men showed up without asking, broke into my apartment, and beat Daniel in my honor.
They didn’t knock or hesitate or even hide how much they… didn’t hate the experience. I almost wonder if they enjoyed themselves.
They don’t treat me like a victim or try to coddle me.
They treat me as if I’m already theirs.
And I like it.
God help me, I like it too much.
The obsession that’s carved into my bones rises, oozing molten lava into my mind. My fingers tighten on the blanket as I try to quiet my thoughts.
Was it crazy to want them?
Have I ever wanted anything as much as I want them?
Not their protection or the way they look at me like I’m something they would bleed for.
But the way they seem to exist for me, as if I flipped a switch none of us can ever turn off again.
And that possessiveness I’ve been trying to pretend I don’t feel?
It climbs like smoke in my throat, choking all the things I need to say.
Do they really want me? Like the real me, not the app me…
Am I just something they’re protecting out of guilt?
Curiosity?
Or am I a project they got too invested in?
Is this obsession… one-sided?
I don’t ask any of it.
I’m too afraid of how badly I want the wrong answers.
“I’m tired,” I say finally, voice low.
Jace stops pacing and runs a hand through his blond hair. “Yeah. You should sleep. Do you want—”
“I want to sleep somewhere that doesn’t smell like him,” I admit, and mentally grin. “I’ll call Roo, and we’ll stay at a hotel across town. That way, I’ll be a little harder for Daniel to find. But I’m going to need one of you to take me back to my apartment so I can get my car.”
“We’ll make up the guest room.” Silas stands. “There’s one on the other side—”
“No,” I interrupt, soft yet firm, drawing a line with my honesty. “I don’t actually want to be alone tonight, or isolated out of some misguided sense of chivalry. I won’t break. There’s no need to separate me for the illusion of space.”
Kieran rises from the opposite side of the couch and offers me his hand. “We won’t. You can sleep in my room.”
He leads me down a long hall, two shadows hovering at my back as I step into their world.
I don’t just feel protected… I feel claimed.
The truth has finally caught up to us.
Most of it, anyway.