Page 80 of Haunted Nightmares
“No, yeah, it’s fine. It makes sense right now.” Orion clears his throat. “What with all the plans and stuff going on. We should be close in case, you know, if something happens or whatever.”
Oh my god.
Ok, I’ve had enough of this.
“Stop,” I grunt as I stomp my foot on the cement like a toddler. “I’m not taking one more step until we fix whatever it is I broke between us.”
My cousin looks around as he gently takes my hand. “Z, I don’t think this is a good idea, not when…you know.”
“Idon’tknow, actually. I have no idea what you mean by that because for the first time in our entire lives, you and I are out of sync, and I’m mad at you for being mad at me!”
“Iris,” Nate says, his voice full of concern as he gives me thequit drawing attention to yourselflook. “If you’re not feeling well, maybe we should go home.”
I pull my arm back as he reaches for it. “No, I don’t want to go home. I have been cooped up in that bayou so long I feel like I’m going to explode. And to be honest, I can handle watching my mate do just about anything to anyone, but I can’t watch him torture Ester while Edith stands there and lets him, not when I still feel like they’re my friends. So, no, I don’t want to go home!”
I spin on my heel and start marching away as Ana starts to laugh, as Nate tries to storm after me but thank the gods for thatfemale because I can hear her trying to calm him down and I know that means they’ll both give me space.
For a little while, anyway.
“Z,” Orion whisper-shouts. “Hey, wait up.”
I don’t stop but I do slow down.
Fighting with my cousin is something that rarely happened before and when it did, it gutted me, which is exactly why I used to hide things from him. Most of our arguments revolved around me and my life in some way so I took to not sharing in order to avoid it. Unfortunately, Orion is an empath and I’m a shitty liar, so that never worked.
“And it probably never will.” My cousin chuckles as he catches up to me, matching my pace with a nudge of his elbow. “Assuming you were thinking about how you hate when we argue, but you can’t avoid it because you suck at lying.”
A small smile curves my lips but I don’t say anything.
He knows he’s right, I don’t have to.
Orion gives me another soft nudge then holds his arm out for me to take. “See, we aren’t so out of sync, after all.”
“But youaremad at me,” I say as I do, slipping my arm through his and walking along the sidewalk the way he did back when we were carefree.So long ago.
“Can you really blame me?”
“Yes.” I giggle as he rolls his eyes. “And no, I can’t blame you, I’d be mad, too.”
“It was pretty shitty, Z. I get that there are all these rules and things because you’re some super special prophet, but?—”
“I went to Wraith first so you’re upset about that, and a tiny part of you still blames him for what happened to me which makes it worse.”
Orion nods. “I know it’s not his fault, I understand that no matter what you are fated to be together but I just, I don’t know,I feel like something could have been done to avoid a lot of the bullshit.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you’re right.” He starts to grin in victory but I pop his bubble real quick. “Or maybe everything that happened before and will happen now between Wraith and I is preordained to some extent, so no matter what we did, I had to die. We were pretty wrapped up in each other, though.”
“That’s how it’s supposed to be, the difference is, most of us don’t have to rule the race.” Orion leans in close and smirks. “Or fight for their lives on a daily basis.” He straightens up as we keep a lazy pace. “It also rocked his world, turned it right on its ass. Your man does everything to the extreme level it can be done and mating is no exception.”
“That is very true. And I might have gotten a little too excited by the prospect of actually having a mate.”
“Especially one like him.”
I nod then lean my head against my cousin. “I am sorry I didn’t come to you first. Or at all, I guess. You found out in a pretty crappy way.”
He really did. I feel terrible about how Orion found out I was back, and I know that’s why he’s been so upset with me. He isn’t really a skeptic by nature but he definitely was when I all of the sudden appeared out of nowhere after watching me burn to a crisp. That’s relatively permanent for most, I think, it was for Ian, so there’s not really any reason Orion should have believed that I was me. Now that he does, that’s exactly why he’s hurt that not only did I not go to him first, I didn’t go to him at all. He swooped in with everyone else after Wraith nearly banged me to death.
“I missed you, Z, but I get it,” Orion says as he stops by a bench, pulling me down on it next to him. “If that was me, I’d probably go find Aries. The madness that happens when a bondis broken is no joke. Plus, I’d probably want to get laid after so long without any action.”
