felt bad about that.
Orion nodded, taking that in and draining his coffee before planting the mug down on an ornate silver table. “So why do you think I did it?”
I scoffed, shaking my head at him. “I don’t know, Lance, you never gave me the courtesy of an explanation.”
He rushed toward me at speed and I cast a solid air shield around me before he could get close. He stopped just before it, his hand brushing the barrier and he released a furious breath through his nose.
“An explanation?” He laughed a cold, mirthless laugh. “You have no fucking idea, do you?”
“About what? How you broke our promise? Or how you ripped out my heart and tore it into fifty pieces? Or was it the part where you gave me no choice in any of it?” I demanded, my temper rising as I shoved my coffee cup between the two couch cushions behind me to keep it there.
He tsked. “You think I wanted it to be this way? I had no fucking choice.”
“Bullshit,” I snarled, dropping my shield in favour of shoving him in the chest with a gust of air as my anger spilled over. I hadn’t wanted this. I’d planned to come here and keep things simple, but maybe I should have realised that things with him would never be that. And now we were going there, I couldn’t stop my rage from pouring out.
He growled as he stumbled back a step, but did nothing to counter the air I kept blasting at him.
“There’s always a choice, and you chose to ruin us.” I’d suppressed all of this for so long, and why shouldn’t I say my piece?
He bared his fangs, his muscles bunching. “You think I wanted to give you up? You think any of this has been easy for me?”
“You were the one who made it hard!” I yelled, my Phoenix flames tingling against the inside of my skin. “You didn’t have the right to make that choice for me.”
“It was the only way,” he pushed and I gave up on blasting him with magic, throwing my palms into his solid chest instead.
“You don’t get to decide my life for me, Lance,” I snapped. “You could have died in that fucking prison. And what the hell for?”
He captured my wrists as I tried to shove him once more, his eyes blazing. His skin on mine was the most tempting kind of torture, heat melting into my blood and calling me to him.
He remained silent and I yanked my hands free of his grip, turning my back on him and putting some distance between us again as I moved across the room. Rain started to patter against the windows, and I gazed out at the dark droplets smattering the glass.
Nothing. He gave me nothing. Even after all this time, he still wouldn’t give me an answer to why he’d done it. It didn’t matter if Darius had tried to convince me of one reason or another, the only person I needed to hear it from was Orion. And his silence spoke volumes.
My Atlas buzzed in my pocket and I took it out, finding a message from Tory saying she was on her way, but she was waiting for Jenkins to stop hovering around on the stairs.
“Is that him?” Orion grunted and I turned around again as I shot her a reply.
“Who?” I muttered, dropping into an armchair and watching the rain. Anything but look at the guy who was the reason it felt like a knife was sliding into my heart and twisting.
“Seth,” he said icily, his shadow looming in my periphery as he drew closer again.
“What does it matter?” I said, following the path of a droplet as it weaved its way down the glass.
“It matters because he’s a fucking asshole,” he growled.
“Things change,” I said firmly.
He tutted. “How? The guy cut off your hair and fucked with us for months.”
“He also saved your life and was there for me when you weren’t,” I said scathingly, a part of me regretting the callous blow, but another more bitter part of me wanted to hurt him for hurting me.
He remained silent for so long that I couldn’t resist looking over at him and the hurt in his eyes made my stomach knot.
“He’s changed,” I went on, my tone softening a little.
“Are you…happy?” he asked in a gruff tone.
“Happy?” I scoffed, glaring at him. “No, Lance, I’m not happy. I won’t be happy until Lionel is dead and I