Page 61 of Burned
Isobel’s gaze flicks to his hand on my neck. “I didn’t call her that. Carlos did.”
“You repeated it.”
“Yes,” she says. “Because she asked me to.”
I should have left her in the snow.
Isobel keeps her eyes on Lucian. “Carlos says things like that. You know why.”
“I don’t, but I’m guessing you’ll enlighten me.” Lucian pulls me to his side, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close.
“He knows you’re weak when you’re in love. And—he wants you weak,” she says.
Love.
She wants everyone in this room to know he loved her once.
Loved her first.
Just not best. I hope.
Blaze gives a dark laugh. “Congratulations. You delivered.”
“I survived,” Isobel says.
The room goes quiet again.
Those two words change the shape of her cruelty.
I want to hate her more cleanly than this. Sharp and sure. Instead, the wounded girl in me wants to hear her out. She is making both things difficult.
Rafe tires of the tension in the room. “We need to move on to important things.
Things that matter.”
Blaze says, “Agreed.”
Lucian looks uncertain, like the state of what Isobel thinks of me needs to be resolved first.
“Lucian, let’s move Isobel to the library,” Gregory suggests.
His timing is always perfect. We all need to breathe.
Bayne disappears, returning with men. Isobel leaves with the men, giving us one backward glance as they escort her to the library.
Lucian’s arm stays around my shoulders. He hasn’t told me if I’m going to the library. I assume he will. For now, I lean my head against his shoulder.
He kisses the top of my head.
Cass wheels into the room and I’m happy to see she’s wearing the pale orange loungewear set she loved so much. She’s got the silver jacket over the back of her chair for flair. She fills the room with the scent of a fruit stand.
Like she wanted to use all the gifts at once. We both know how quickly we lose nice things.
Mack follows behind her, Ryan riding piggyback on the huge man.
Cass stares at me with the attention only sisters possess. “Rin,” she says.
“I’m fine.”
