Wings of the Wicked - By Courtney Allison Moulton Page 0,72
lie and he knew it. While he had every right to laugh in my face, he didn’t.
“That’s not what it looked like. That guy was going to take advantage of you. I know you better than anyone. If you were in the right state of mind, you’d never have let him touch you like that.”
I took another bite, because I didn’t quite know what to say. He was right. Brian was a creep. I didn’t know if he was capable of something as awful as rape, but I was also pretty sure I would have been able to stop him if things were about to get that far.
“I don’t regret pulling him off you,” Will continued, his voice firm, “and I hate that you think I should. I will never regret anything that I have to do in order to protect you.”
“Still, you shouldn’t have beaten them up. You against a hundred of them still wouldn’t be a fair fight. You could have killed them all. You scared me, Will. I thought you were about to snap.” I knew he had a temper, and underneath all of that control, there was a darker, volatile nature. This was Will, the one person I knew better than my own self, but I didn’t know if there was anything he wouldn’t do to protect me.
“I was angry and I know it was wrong, but that guy deserved far worse than what I did to him. If I upset you, then I apologize for that, but I am not sorry for striking any of them.”
“You shouldn’t have followed us to that party, either. You had no right.”
“Ellie, you’re being hunted,” he said. “And I am your Guardian. I kept my distance, but I had to go, just in case. What if you’d been attacked? What if a demonic reaper like Merodach had shown up and killed you or someone else? You shouldn’t have put yourself and Kate at risk, let alone everyone else in that house.”
I sighed and pushed my plate away, unable to keep eating. “Do we have to talk about this again?”
“I just don’t think you’re considering the safety of others, let alone yourself.”
I ground my teeth and rapped my nails against the counter. “Look. I’d just nearly died fighting Orek, and my own father even tried to hurt me. I’ve been going through a lot. I feel like I’m going crazy. Getting out and doing something new felt like a good idea.”
“I should have been at your side,” he said earnestly. “Wherever you go, I should be with you. You are my responsibility, and I can’t protect you if you’re away from me.”
“I can’t stand being around you when you treat me as if I’m just your responsibility. Like I’m a stranger. I’m the last person who should be a stranger to you.”
He frowned, dropping his head and looking up at me through his lashes. “Then what do I need to do?”
I bit down on the inside of my cheek as my chest tightened and I tried not to cry. “If I knew that, I would have ordered you to do it already.”
He smiled that beautiful smile of his, and I almost let out a sob. I wanted him to tuck my hair behind my ear like he did, hold me in his arms that way he did, kiss me like he did last night—anything but sit frozen like a statue inches from me. I loved him so much it hurt. He was so close to me, yet impossible to reach.
“It was hard for me to stand outside and wait,” he said, his voice breaking more and more. “I knew what he wanted—what he tried—to do. I waited and waited for you to wake up and pummel that guy, because I know you could’ve. I was so angry, and my fists were rolled so tight my hands were bleeding. I tried not to interfere, I really did, but then it was clear that you couldn’t get out of there on your own. I couldn’t wait anymore.”
I was biting hard on the inside of my cheek, imagining him trying to hold himself back and let me handle the situation on my own. I had been in way over my head and too drunk to save myself or even know what was going on.
He continued, looking away from me. “Before things got really bad, I was jealous. When he touched you … I wanted to kill him.”