Page 66 of The Vixen

I close my eyes and breathe through the heat that blasts my face. Fire spreads from the tip of my nose to the curve of my ears, but if I erupt into flames, Sawyer doesn’t mention them. For a solid minute, he says nothing.

“Did they really believe you were a demon?” he asks cautiously. Though he must know the answer.

I don’t confirm it.

It’s worse than whatever he’s imagining. My people werehorrifiedat my birth—a being with white skin and devil eyes, not just defective but paranormal.

If it weren’t for my father caring for his flesh and blood, they would’ve stoned me along with my mother. Then threw my bloodied limbs into a fire to send me back to hell.

My father protected me under the condition that I stay away from the people. For twelve years, I watched them through my bedroom window, the natural lines in my fingertips sanded down from constantly brushing glass.

Never could I have imagined I would one day join them. But Thorne is both painfully beloved and charmingly honest, with a voice people listened to. Long before they started listening to me.

I owe my breath to my father. But my life to Thorne.

Flinch.

As warm as Sawyer’s chest feels, this bed is not where I belong.

“Zephyr referred to you by your birth name,” Sawyer says, knife to the heart. “So I knew that already… But thank you for telling the truth.”

Teeth sink into my bottom lip. Silence bathes us while I pretend his comment doesn’t make me even more vulnerable. More stupid.

It’s his turn.

But I can’t help myself.

“Not everything she told you about me was true.”

No response.

“I’ve never hurt one of Thorne’s lovers.”

“Except Zephyr,” Sawyer says. Evenhewas aware of their affair.

My face burns hot.

“I found out they were sleeping together a year before her death… I didn’t kill her for sleeping with Thorne. Or for sleeping withyou.” My throat pangs. “She made a choice to betray the Shadow Sanctum. That doesn’t come without a cost.”

More silence… It’s worse than if he argued. More effective than if he’d pressed.

“That wasn’t the first time she’d attempted sabotage,” I say, as if his understanding matters.

But it does…

Sawyer is the only person who even knows about Zephyr. No one else questioned her death. There’s no one to judge me but him.

“She volunteered to take my place with you. I’m certain she would’ve told you everything. Made one big joke for the two of you to laugh at behind my back.”

“She sounds like a shitty sister.”

“She…”

The word comes quick, but as soon as it’s out of my mouth it’s impossible to finish the sentence.

She was.

But… she wasn’t.