98. Summer
Chapter Ninety-Eight
Summer
I wake the next morning, and when I roll over, my hand lands against something hard.
I blink my eyes open to find a red leather-bound book lying next to me, a black peony on top.
The tag, as usual, is marked little fae .
Picking up the peony, I sit up and bring it to my nose, inhaling deeply.
My lips tug into a smile, and I brush the silky petals against my cheek.
I close my eyes, savoring the scent. It smells like Heaven and Hell all wrapped into one perfect flower.
It smells like how I imagine he smells, like danger wrapped in the most delicious, irresistible package.
I open my eyes and carefully set the flower down before picking up the book.
It surprises me that it isn’t a textbook or an instructional manual.
It’s a fictional story about queens and kings.
About malice and anger. About love and fate.
I get lost in it until my alarm goes off.
I am so immersed in the story that the sudden sound startles me, making me jump.
Reluctantly, I leave my bed and get dressed before leaving the house. No sooner have I started jogging than my phone pings.
Unknown
Do you like my gift, princess?
My lips twitch as I text him back.
Summer
I love it. That story . . .
Unknown
It’s one of my favorites. Fiction is so much more forgiving than reality.
There is a brief pause before the bubbles start jumping again at the bottom of the screen.
Unknown
You know, I could train you in combat.
I frown at my phone.
Summer
I have a trainer.
Unknown
You don’t need to leave your house at five am every morning to spar with the boy. I could train you.
I narrow my eyes at the screen.
Summer
Again, I have a trainer.
Unknown
And I am a far better one.
Summer
Have you fought Max before?
Unknown
The enemies I have defeated are far more powerful. I am alive. They are not.
Should I provide references?
I feel myself bristling a little.
Summer
That doesn’t prove you are better than Max.
Unknown
I have fought in wars older than the boy, older than his father, his father’s father.
I blink.
Summer
What has gotten into you? What has prompted this epiphany?
Unknown
I just think you should be trained by the best available.
Why are you resistant to me training you?
I stop walking.
Summer
Ah, jealousy.
Unknown
And if it is?
Summer
I would remind you that you and I are friends. As are Max and I.
Unknown
And there are no feelings between you and me? You and the boy?
I blink down at my phone as I start walking toward the gym again. I thought things with the stranger were good. Where the fuck has this come from?
Summer
What has gotten into you?
Unknown
Nothing.
I roll my eyes and shove my phone away as I enter the gym.
“Rafe?” Max asks, a little surprised Rafe isn’t with me. I avoided him all night, and he had done the same.
“I’m still pissed at him.”
Max nods. “He’s still pushing for the muzzle?” he asks, and his eyes flash green at the word. I wonder what the story is behind his reaction.
I nod, watching him as he warms up. I can see the tension in his shoulders as he flexes them.
“Max?”
“Yeah?”
“You okay?”
He pauses for a second, flexing his hands. “Do you know a lot about berserkers?”
“Only what I’ve learned in Species,” I admit, feeling embarrassed by this for some reason.
His hands flex again, and he watches them, considering his words.
“Max, you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to.”
“It’s important,” he says. “Berserkers come into their madness at thirteen. Way earlier than any other species, and many are lost to it. There are some,” he flexes his hands again, “who have to be contained for years before they can harness it. This usually means that our arms are broken and pinned behind our backs with shackles. If we can’t get our arms around someone, we’re less likely to kill them with our strength. They did it to my sister and me.”
“And Beck suffered for it?”
Max nods. “She’s younger, too young for Avalon, and her scars didn’t heal like mine.”
I put my hand on his arm, watching him, trying to give him some comfort from the ghost of his traumatic past. I remember seeing her standing in the gym, her own battles evidenced by her pale skin and petite frame.
Her desperation for the funds to suppress whatever memories haunted her day and night was clear in her voice .
“Rafe wanting a muzzle is not something that will help him,” he says, finally looking up at me. “I speak from extreme experience.”
“Max?.?.?.” I want to offer to help him with her, but I have no idea where to start, and neither does he.
If he did, he’d be doing it already. He mentioned Elysian, though even if I gave him the money to get her into the program, the female I met those weeks ago was not receptive to doing anything other than numbing her pain with medication. If you don’t want to heal, you won’t.
“If he hates the demon, he will never accept it. Mira helped him step forward, but now he’s scrambling back.”
“So how do I help him?” I ask.
Max’s eyes flash green. “I wish I had an answer for you. A quick solution to making him better, to making him see , but I don’t.”
“Can I help you?”
“You already do,” he says, covering my hand where it rests on his arm.
Max leans in, getting closer, and I’m so lost in comforting him that when he brushes his lips over mine, all I do is freeze. I don’t kiss him back because the second it happens, I think of the stranger. Of the promise I made to him. Of the desire I feel for him.
Fuck.
I pull back, yanking my lips away from his, and he blinks in surprise.
“Summer, I?—”
“I’m celibate,” I blurt, but then I soften. “I should go. You’re a good guy, Max.”
He nods and looks away, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck awkwardly.
“Max?” He glances at me. “I’m glad you got out of there. Of the situation that held you like that.”
“Me too,” he says.
I nearly run out of the gym, my stomach knotting in every way possible.