16. Liath #2
I swallowed it down and forced the heat in my chest into something colder, harder, until it felt almost manageable.
I didn’t care who Lorcan put his hands on, whose mouth he dirtied, whose body he bent to his will. Not one bit.
Okay, maybe Rua cared. But I didn’t.
The lie tasted so bitter I could barely stand it.
By the time I turned away, my face felt steady again, but my pulse was still beating hard against my ribs as their laughter followed me out.
Aoife’s voice clung hardest of all, syrupy and smug.
Lorcan is mine.
The words stuck to my skin like sweat.
I burst into the courtyard, lungs tight. Damp air hit my face, cold and raw, but it did nothing to cool the heat crawling under my skin. Ravenwood loomed around me in wet stone and dark archways.
I could feel eyes on me, laughter tickling the back of my neck, sharp as glass. Whispers curled beneath the archways, Rua’s name slithering through them like a curse.
My boots clicked against the flagstones with a sound far too sharp for the morning, and every strike seemed to announce me to the whole courtyard.
I felt horribly visible, as if the gossip had already gone ahead of me and stripped my skin clean off.
Every glance that flicked my way felt like the slam of a judge’s gavel.
The rumor mill had already sunk its teeth in, thanks to Aoife’s venomous little tongue. Or maybe I was being paranoid. Hard to tell anymore.
My throat burned with swallowed curses as I hurried toward the archway leading to the library. I needed to disappear. Just five minutes of quiet. Just a corner where my name—her name—wasn’t being wielded like a weapon. Or a joke.
A tall figure stepped into my path like he’d been waiting for me.
Elias.
He planted himself where the stone narrowed, leaving me just enough space to think I might get past him and not enough to actually do it. His eyes scanned me like grubby fingers.
“What’s the craic, Rua?” His grin widened, boyish and easy, like he hadn’t just cornered me in full view of the courtyard.
“Bit nippy out, isn’t it?” he said, eyes dipping to the black material tight across my chest. “Should’ve worn something thicker… or nothing at all.”
I didn’t flinch. Just met his gaze, flat and cold. “Careful, Elias. Your sleaze is showing.”
His grin faltered for a heartbeat, then snapped back into place, too wide now. “Christ, Rua. Who pissed in your cereal this morning?” He leaned in, voice dropping low. “Come on. Bet I could put a smile back on that pretty face.”
He reached his fingers out for my cheek, his gold signet ring catching the light.
I stepped back, avoiding his touch. “Touch me and I’ll smile when they wheel you into the ER.”
He laughed, but it was brittle now. “Feisty. I like that.”
“I don’t care what you like.” I angled to slip past him.
He mirrored me, then used his width to back me up against the wall. He stuck his arm out to block me from slipping out.
I grit my teeth. “Let me go.”
Elias pouted. “Come on, sweetheart. We’re just having fun.”
Students looked straight at us as they passed. One boy’s mouth twitched like he found the whole thing funny. Two girls slowed just enough to take it in before carrying on.
Nobody stepped in. Nobody even pretended to care about what Elias was doing.
The normality of it made his violation even uglier. The way Ravenwood let a girl get cornered in broad daylight and kept moving.
I could not decide which felt worse, the actual violation or the certainty that none of them would do a bloody thing.
Elias just grinned at me as if this was just banter, as if their indifference gave him permission.
Fear twisted in with my rage, making both burn hotter and sweat gathered at the base of my spine.
Men like Elias always counted on hesitation. They counted on girls being too polite, on calculating the risk of making it worse by protesting, on swallowing a scream because no one would help.
“Move.” I tried to step out again.
But this time he blocked me with his whole body, his expensive cologne mixed with a sourness that made a scraping sound in the base of my skull.
I cringed at the violation as he brushed his groin up against me. “Elias, fuck off or I’ll scream.”
He chuckled as he pressed closer. “Oh, yeah, I’d love to make you scream, baby.”
His breath was hot on my cheek as I turned my head away and readied to knee him.
Something shifted in the air, sudden and sharp, as if a cloud had swallowed the sun.
The hairs along my arms lifted as the scraping noise in my skull splintered into violin strings, the scent-song that only ever meant him.
“Montgomery.” Lorcan’s voice cut the air as his shadow fell across us.
I froze. Shit. The last thing I needed was for Lorcan and Elias to gang up on me.
Elias glanced over, still grinning. “Bit busy, mate.”
Lorcan stood with his feet planted and his hips squared to us. His shoulders looked loose, almost lazy, but both his hands were curled into fists at his sides.
Behind him, students passing by had stopped to watch. Like things just got interesting.
Lorcan’s gaze dropped to where Elias had boxed me in, then came back up cool and flat. “It is always embarrassing watching a man beg this hard for attention.”
Someone nearby gasped.
Elias’s grin slipped. “I’m just talking to her.”
Lorcan’s mouth moved at one corner, not quite a snarl. “If you have to block her path to manage that, ‘just talking’ isn’t what you’re doing.”
A few students let out chuckles.
Elias stepped back a fraction, but the fraction was enough. The space opened. Air hit my lungs properly for the first time in minutes.
Elias made a dismissive noise in his throat. “Bro, what’s your problem?”
Lorcan’s face darkened. “I get that you don’t actually know what it looks like when a woman wants you near her, Montgomery, but being told to fuck off is usually a clue.”
Laughter cracked across the courtyard, louder this time, and Elias’s face reddened so quickly it almost pleased me.
“Alright, mate,” Elias muttered, already turning back. “Was just being friendly.”
He cut across the courtyard and was gone before I could process what had just happened.
Air rushed into my lungs, the pure wave of relief nearly making my knees give out.
Heat surged up my throat a second later, hot enough to make my face burn as I looked up and found the whole courtyard staring, their whispers already moving faster than breath.
Something cold settled low in my gut. My skin felt flayed open, my pulse hammering hard against my ribs.
Elias cornering me had been ugly enough, but Lorcan stepping in had turned it into something worse. I could feel it in the way their eyes clung to me now, in the way the moment seemed to harden around my skin like a brand.
Lorcan just stood there, waiting, his gaze hooked into me, heavy and unrelenting, like fingers peeling away my clothes, layer by invisible layer.
That stare did not feel protective. It felt proprietary. It slid over me as if he were assessing for damage.
The realization sent a furious shiver through me because some traitorous part of my body responded to his possession.
I muttered a “thank you” and I hated myself for it.
He approached, moving slowly as if giving me every opportunity to back away.
My stupid feet remained rooted to the ground.
He stepped in close, crowding my space until his mouth brushed the shell of my ear.
His voice slid through me like a threat. “I’m the only one who gets to fuck with you.”
I knew with horrible clarity that Lorcan had not stepped in out of kindness. He had stepped in because Elias had touched something that belonged to him.
Lorcan had decided that I was his to torment.