5
TIGER
Sniffling, my spine digs into the wall of our Bonded bedroom as I sit beside the pile of gold I collected from Ezzy the night before last. Legs bare in my black pyjama shorts, I wrap my arms around them, fingers on my right hand fiddling with one of her bracelets, the gentle metallic tinkling the only sound to shift the silence.
I’ve always known how strongly I felt for Ez, so watching her suffer, being right next to her earlier, yet having her so far away .
. . I’m not at all surprised by how much it’s affecting me.
It’s not even her words, her rejection. I’m used to that.
But it’s actually worse knowing she has no choice but to treat us this way.
Her cruelty is hurting, but what hurts most is seeing her controlled like a puppet on strings.
She’s not someone who’s meant to be suppressed like this.
And I just . . . I miss her as if she’s been gone for years.
I’m so, so scared we’re not going to get out of this, and I need Ezla more than oxygen.
The soft knock on the door has my shoulders stiffening, jaw clenching. My free hand comes up to my face to wipe at the tears running down my cheeks. “Leave me alone, Scotty.”
He sighs. “I had to say that to her. You know I didn’t mean it.”
My lip trembles.
He told Ezla after she grabbed my wrist earlier that he knew he should have kept me away from her, that he’s finally seeing “the truth”, and I’ve never been more mad at him. I’m not sure if I’ve ever been mad at him, not truly. Not to the point where I can’t even look at him.
“I’m sorry, Tiger.”
I don’t respond.
Blowing out another breath, his quiet footsteps draw nearer. Settling beside me on the floor, he’s quiet for a moment, gathering his thoughts. Then he says, “You know we have to do this. It’s all to keep her safe—to keep all six of us safe.”
It’s hard to swallow around the painful lump in my throat. “I know,” I whisper. And I do. But that doesn’t magically make the fury disappear.
“Then what’s really bothering you?”
I hesitate to respond, clenching Ezla’s bracelet in my fist. “That he’s changing us. That monster is changing us. I hate it. It’s not even the Games, it’s just him.” My voice cracks. “The Game Master.”
My brother’s anguished sound is muffled in his throat, even as he corrects, “Joseph. Don’t give him so much power.” A beat before he continues, softer, “This won’t be forever, Tiger. We might have to act different now, but we all know it’s just that—an act.”
“Is it?” I fire at him before I can put a filter on my mouth.
Glancing at him out of the corner of my eye, I see his blond brows dip low. “Is it an act? Of course. Why would you ask that?”
“Because you seemed truly angry at our Bonded today. I don’t like it when you speak to her like that, especially not if it was real. She doesn’t deserve your anger.”
He scrubs a palm over his face, still discoloured from Tate’s beating.
One I didn’t even try to prevent. Never before have I left my brother to fend for himself.
We’ve always been a team, and even if I was the one who needed the most help over the years, I’ve never hesitated to aid him when he needed it. Not until he spoke so poorly to Ezla.
Maybe Joseph doesn’t need to destroy us. It seems we’re already tearing each other apart well enough ourselves.
“I know, brother,” Scotty says quietly. “I know. And I feel like crap, because some of that anger was real, but just trust me when I tell you that nothing I say to her in that private training room is. Not a single thing I’ve said so far both in that room and yesterday morning was real, and nothing I will continue to say when cameras could be watching us ever will be.
I have to be the one to do this. And I’m so fucking sorry for how it’s hurting both you and her, but I’d do this a thousand times over to keep our Bonded alive. ”
As a blanket of silence wraps around us again, it’s now guilt that presses down on me, forcing my head to hang low.
The gold in my fist digs into my skin as my grip becomes crushing.
“I . . . I’m sorry. I know this . . . I know this must be a lot harder for you than you’re letting on.
I know you and Cooper are taking on the most here.
You just never let anyone see how taking care of everyone affects you, so I sometimes forget . . .”
“Hey,” he says softly, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, and I turn my head his way. “You know I love taking on that role.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not difficult.” Eyes roving over his face, I take in the bruises and scabs again.
The infirmary definitely helped, but his condition clearly wasn’t deemed severe enough to heal him completely with Avri when the Neutral man took him away to assess him in private, which is just bullshit.
I know the energy must be handled with care to get the commands to heal each injury right, but it’s almost always possible, and Techta has clusters in abundance held in Avri poles that are ready for extraction, so I don’t understand why they can’t just fix all injuries that way.
Well, okay, maybe I do understand, because I guess if hospitals offered that kind of Avri treatment for everything, there would be citizens going in for papercuts and similar minor injuries, and that would be far too time-consuming and eventually maybe even could start making the energy supply too low.
Still, the point is, Scotty’s condition should call for better Avri treatment than being fed it in tablets.
He’s taken Avritabs and some other medication to speed up the healing process, but he still looks absolutely awful.
When he opens his mouth to respond but winces instead, I say, “You need another Avritab.”
He offers a grim smile. “I know. I’ll have one in a minute.”
Scanning him over carefully for any sign of deceit, I press, “Promise?”
A dip of his chin as he gazes steadily into my eyes. “I promise, Tiger.” His features bleed sincerity.
So why do his words sound like they hold no honesty at all?