He freezes before taking a step closer and squeezing my shoulder.
“I never blamed you for what happened,” he admits after a moment, and I know he’s talking about the woman’s death. “I knew you had your reasons.”
“But that’s the thing, Hux. I didn’t murder that woman. I didn’t murder any of those people.” The mere thought makes me sick to my stomach. I’m no saint—you can’t live as long as I have and still have clean hands—but senseless murder has never been my forte. Bile churns in my gut as a shocking revelation sits in my stomach like poison.
“You claimed you didn’t murder those people I accused you of. Were you telling the truth?”
Hux scoffs once, actually sounding offended. “Of course I was telling the truth. I take credit for my kills.”
My breathing is erratic as I struggle to hold on to my sanity.
“M-Maybe we’ve had a third interloper longer than we expected,” I manage to stutter out at last. Hux’s hand tightens on my shoulder to the point of pain.
“What do you mean, brother?” The ire in Hux’s voice makes his accent thicker.
“It means…” I lick my unbelievably dry lips. “It means that I don’t think we’re the only two in here. I don’t think it’s ever been just us two.”
CHAPTER 38
VIOLET
I was once slapped in the face with a flaccid dildo. Honestly, I have no idea why they even make those things. Yes, it is a thing—if you don’t believe me, look it up. To make a long story short—one of my human girlfriends accused me of kissing her boyfriend. I hadn’t—girl code and all—but she didn’t believe me. The next thing I knew, she was whacking me across the face with said flaccid dildo. I remember being both shocked and horrified as I rubbed at my reddening cheek.
Seeing Barret alive and well, grinning shyly? It was the monster equivalent of being bitch-slapped with cock.
“Barret?” I breathe as I stare at him like he’s a mirage, an illusion capable of disappearing with the next gust of wind. “How are you…? Why are you…? How?” I scrub a hand down my face as the beginning tendrils of hope bubble low in my stomach like a corrosive acid. But hope is an immensely dangerous emotion to have. What happens when the hope fades? You’re left with nothing but crippling pain and loneliness.
Is this another game? Another aspect of the Roaring?
“How are you still alive, man?” Mason queries, disbelief and suspicion evident in his tone. “Cal and Violet watched you die.”
My nails dig into my skin as I ball both of my hands. “You better start explaining, Barret, because I’m sort of crapping my pants right now. Figuratively. And soon to be literally if you don’t start talking.”
His beautiful face is pinched in confusion as he cocks his head to the side. His green-tinted hair billows in the breeze from my open window as he regards us curiously. I half expect him to dissipate into a cloud of smoke. The dead can’t come back to life, can they? It’s not possible. Not even Dracula can escape death by the hand of a god-blessed dagger. I saw Alex shove it into his heart. I saw him fall, blood forming around his mouth.
So how is he here? How is he standing in front of me with a confused smile?
“Didn’t Alex tell you?” His large eyes blink innocently up at me, but my unease only ratchets up a dozen notches.
“That fucking asshole?” I hiss through gritted teeth. “If I saw him, I would sooner stab my blade through his chest than partake in a conversation. Unless the conversation is how to effectively remove the balls off a male while he’s still alive and screaming.”
Vin, beside me, winces and cups his crotch. “That’s nasty, Vi.”
Ignoring him, I refocus my entire attention on the dead guy. “How are you here? I saw you die.” My voice breaks on that final word, and that memory will forever haunt me like a tattoo that has embedded itself on my heart. No matter what I do, I can’t remove it, and I’m beginning to think that I don’t want to. A part of me wants to live with the hurt and pain—to remind myself that I survived it once, and I can survive it again.
“I ran into Alex when I first stepped out of the portal.” Barret still sounds confused as his dark eyes flicker from first my face, then to the guys’ on either side of me. “He told me that he knew of a way for me to save your life.” He shrugs once, his large shoulders reaching his ears. “And I did it.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” I interrupt. For a lot of reasons, actually. The most important being that Alex hates me and wants to wear my innards like some sort of fucked up scarf. And I, similarly, want to use his head as a basketball. Obviously, Alex was playing Barret, but I just can’t understand why.
“He told me that his father possessed a god-blessed dagger,” Barret continues, lips pursed delicately.
“A dagger that he stabbed you with,” Mason interjects.
“Wrong.” With a sigh, Barret moves to sit on my desk chair, spinning it around so he’s straddling it. “The dagger was normal. He knew it wouldn’t kill me, as long as one of my bugs was able to crawl through the portal.”
“Okay, start from the beginning.” Vin moves so he’s standing slightly in front of me, and I can’t tell if he’s protecting me from Barret…or protecting Barret from me. My emotions are running rampant at the moment, fear, anxiety, and that bastard hope all fighting for dominance. All I want to do is leap into Barret’s arms like a heroine in a romantic movie—you know the type. When the girl discovers that her long-lost love is actually alive and well. Honestly, I made fun of those movies when I first watched them. What female
