Lilah raised her eyebrows. “Oh, love. You don’t remember? I knew as soon as I got into that pretty little head of yours. Don’t you remember that night that Daddy and Auntie died?”
I scrunched my eyebrows, which made Lilah roll her eyes. She leapt from Cooper’s lap over to me. “Must I spell it out for you? Jesus, sometimes you are really slow for someone who is supposed to be so smart. Okay, remember when you were in that crystal cavern trying to stay alive after your mother was dying?Well, you killed some people that day. One of them was Cooper’s daddy?—”
No.
The screams going silent…
The wet, crunching noises…
Bodies falling…
Doing whatever it took to survive…
“And, after that, he tracked you and your little family down. He helped with the mission where your daddy and auntie died. Ringing any bells?”
The masked boy with eyes full of murder and rage…
His gun and knife glowing with what I knew now was blood magic…
A man now, with unnerving eyes full of sharp knives that made me feel like I was being dissected…
Oh, fuck.
Oh, fuck fuck fuck.
My heart sank straight through the floor. My eyes went to Cooper, who hadn’t moved or done anything as a sign of acknowledgment of this bombshell. His gun was still pointed at me, his eyes still glaring at me with the heated strength of a doomsday laser. It was no wonder he was gunning for me now. I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t do the same thing if I were in his shoes. I remembered that morning in the diner after I had first met Quinn.
I was eleven when my father wasmurderedby amonster.
It had been crazy intense, especially for the second time I had interacted with this guy. He was fucking wild for saying that, but I could tell even then that there was so much hurt underneath his words. A hunger for revenge usually began with being force-fed nothing but hurt and pain.
At the end of the day, he was a boy who had lost his father.
Because of me.
Because I had killed him.
“Cooper, I’m so sorry,” I said, truly and earnestly meaning it. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I was just trying to survive.
His lips twisted into a sneer. Even before he opened his mouth, I knew he wasn’t having it. “Oh, I will be sure you will be sorry once I’m done with you.”
Okay, you freak bitch.So much for empathy.
The realization dawned on me then like a cold shower. That faithful day, we had both lost someone who was our world, but we had handled it very differently. I had only killed because it was either me or them, and I wanted to live to see another day. I didn’t have any other options. Ihadto survive. I wasn’t sure I would change how I handled the whole situation. But, beyond that, once I was safe, I moved on. I lived. I loved. I thrived. I didn’t focus on who killed my parents and Aunt. I didn’t let that consume me because it wasn’t worth it. Living my life and protecting what meant the most to me was invaluable. Nothing I did would bring back what I lost.
Cooper clearly didn’t do, or care, about any of that. He let revenge consume him, blind him. He could have walked away. Instead, he leaned and locked the fuck in. Now, he had nothing to live for aside from this, aside from what stewed inside him. Unlike me.
If I could hear my dragon, I knew she would say that I had to survive. I felt that truth down to my bones.
I would do whatever it took to get out of here, to see Quinn again, to survive.
Even if that meant killing anyone who got in my way.
A younger version of myself would call me a monster. But, hey, I loved reading monster romances now as an adult.
You were in danger. It was self-defense, I’m sure. You arenota monster, okay?
Quinn…
