Page 51 of Rapunzel Unchained
“It’s true.”
Finally remembering how to breathe, I glanced up at Luke, who peered down at me with a soft smile. “He was insufferable the entire time you were gone. I almost wished for him to shove his face back into one of his stupid smutty books.”
Lips brushed along my ankle and up my calf, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. “He kept secrets from all of us,” Blake murmured against my skin.
“He was trying,” Zane added, his thumb smoothing back and forth over my hand. “You should have seen him after you showed up giving him an ultimatum.” He gave me a wicked grin that looked more at home with the demon’s face than his. “Jealousy is very becoming on you, apparently.”
“I don’t need you to defend me.” Adam crossed his arms over his chest and glared. “I told you it was for show, and I was going to end it eventually. Rebecca just beat me to it.”
I leaned my head against Zane’s arm, feigning boredom. “Rebecca’s loyalty is stronger than yours, it seems.”
“Loyalty?!” Adam bellowed, his eyes burning with anger. “You speak of loyalty as if everything I’ve done has not been for you.” His steps brought him just shy of Blake’s bent leg.
“It was me who kept Master Tuck from scaling that tower and taking you then, in the hospital when he tried to take you away from us again, I stopped him. Not to forget when I stood up to the council when they wanted to lock you up for testing. You have thrown everything into a tailspin the moment we rescued you from that tower, and I have been scrambling to keep you safe. Is that not loyalty? Am I not worthy of your trust?”
Before I could respond, a dark chuckle from my right filled my ears. Zane’s hand released me, his eyes burning red as he pulled off his glasses. “Worthy of her trust? That is a funny one, mage.”
Adam glowered at Zane’s demon. “What do you know about it, demon?”
The demon reached across and dipped his hand into the top of Zane’s jacket. He took a moment to trace my breast with his nails, flicking my nipple before digging into the inside pocket. He withdrew a cigarette and brought it to his lips, lighting the end with Zane’s magic, or was it his magic?
Either way, he took a long drag before staring Adam down. “Have you done all this for our little sinner or to assuage your own guilt?”
My gaze bounced from the demon to Adam and back. Even the twins had questioning looks on their faces.
Adam’s jaw clenched, his hands dropping to his sides in tight fists. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A sense of dread prickled along my skin. “Whatareyou talking about?”
The demon grinned with uncontained glee as he breathed out a long line of smoke. “Our boy here didn’t rescue you from the tower just to keep Master Tuck away from you.”
It was hard to swallow around his words. I knew whatever it was he was going to say would break my heart, and I didn’t want to hear it. But I had to know, as much as I dreaded it.
Adam and I had a push and pull between us since the very beginning when he first found me. A part of me thought we would get past whatever was keeping us apart. That part waited with bated breath for the demon to shatter me.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Adam growled a warning. The very sound sinking in, creating another fracture in my heart.
“Oh, you were playing the long game, of course,” the demon purred, leaning against me as if we were just chatting about the weather. “What a spectacular actor you are to pretend like you didn’t know that tower was there this whole time.”
I swore even my heart froze at his words.
Luke’s hand paused on my head. Blake’s fingers tightened on my calf. It was as if all the air from the room had been sucked out of it, waiting for those damning words to be spoken.
Adam’s eyes fell on me, regret and guilt raced across his expression.
“Adam?” That one word made my voice crack.
“When my grandfather told me about our ancestor’s journals, I never believed they were real. Not until the tower appeared in Old Central Park. I knew that, if the journals were true, I couldn’t let Master Tuck get a hold of you. You have to understand the way Snow described you...”
He shook his head, his eyes filled with emotion. “I thought I was going in there to kill a monster. One who was not only a threat to me, but to everyone.”
I could hardly breathe as he spoke. That crack in my heart splintered deeper and deeper with each damning word.
“Then I found you. You were so beautiful. So innocently happy just to see our faces, and I knew...” He fell to his knees and reached for my hand. I pulled back, barely restraining the tears that burned in my eyes. “I knew that whatever you did or didn’t do, you didn’t deserve what my ancestor did to you. I couldn’t leave you there, let alone let Master Tuck have you.”
“I lied, yes.” Adam continued, not seeing how my world was falling apart. “I lied to all of you. I don’t know how Rebecca or Master Tuck found the journals. No one knew about the journals but my family, and they were only known to us as a warning in case you ever broke free.”
“Eva...” He tried again.
