A bouquet of severed fingers, all of them contained with what appears to be a piece of intestine.
“Is that…?” I can barely breathe past the stone wedged in my throat.
“The men who hurt you,” Rafe explains gruffly, thrusting the makeshift bouquet closer to me.
Tears burn my eyes.
“Dude,” Krystian breathes in horror.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Everett bellows.
I ignore them and take the proffered digits with a wide, beaming smile. “I love them.”
Silence.
And then…
“You…love them?” Zaid ventures hesitantly.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” I bounce on the balls of my feet as I study each finger individually.
White, black, brown…and all coated in a layer of red.
“You get her nice clothes, and she asks if you have the power of detecting bra sizes. You get her severed fingers, and she practically swoons,” Everett mutters to himself, his tone acerbic and bitter.
“You’re a little messed up, aren’t you, love?” Krystian says lightly.
He doesn’t sound perturbed by the prospect, though. If anything, the heat in his eyes builds until it’s a blazing inferno that sets me aflame.
“She’s perfect,” Rafe counters gruffly.
I preen.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THEA
Apparently, we’re going to travel by portal.
By freaking portal.
Of course, I knew it was a thing, but to know it’s an actual thing and not just a thing that’s a thing… Well, I’m not sure I want to do the thing, because the thing is freaking portal traveling.
I’m just an itty-bitty, teeny-weeny bit nervous.
“It doesn’t hurt,” Zaid assures me for the one billionth time, his tone calm and placating—a direct contrast to the turmoil in my head.
“Why don’t you guys go on ahead. I’ll stay here. Hold down the fort, so to speak.” I flick my gaze towards Rafe, who’s currently using blood magic to open said portal.
Red drips from a wound on his palm in a steady stream, landing on the grass at his feet. A shimmering, garnet portal has erupted from the ground and hovers slightly in the air, roughly the size of Everett, if not bigger.
“I won’t hurt you,” Rafe promises in that gravelly, raspy voice of his that never fails to twist my stomach into knots. “Never.”
“But…” I take an automatic step away, only to ram into Krystian’s hard chest.
He immediately wraps his arms around me.
“Come on, love. It’ll be fine.” He lifts me off the ground and begins to walk us both forward, my legs swaying like a pendulum.
