Page 112 of Noctis

For one wonderful second, Tyler looked terrified. Then his expression hardened. “You recorded me.”

I tried to snatch the phone back, but he held it out of reach. “Give me that.”

“How long has this been running?”

“Long enough.”

When he stopped the recording, I lunged for the phone again, catching his wrist this time, but he twisted free and shoved me hard enough that my shoulder struck the wall.

“Don’t,” I said. Panic sharpened the word. “Tyler, don’t you fucking dare.”

He found the recording and deleted it. Then he opened the recently deleted folder and erased it from there as well.

“You think you’re clever, don’t you?” Tyler tossed the phone onto the counter behind him. “You go through my things, ambush me, and secretly record me while I’m trying to help by explaining how the accident happened.”

“You dumped my mother’s body in a river.”

“Keep your voice down.”

“You stole her ring.”

His face contorted. “Shut up.”

“You left her in the water to rot, then came home and pretended to comfort me.”

“I said shut up.”

His hand closed around my throat.

My head struck the wall as his fingers tightened, cutting off whatever I’d been about to say. For a second, shock had me frozen. Then instinct took over. I grabbed his wrist with both hands and tried to wrench it away, but anger had given him a strength I’d never known he possessed.

“You always have to push,” Tyler said through clenched teeth. “You never know when to leave something alone.”

Pressure built behind my eyes. I kicked at his shin, but the angle was wrong and the blow barely registered. His thumb dug beneath my jaw, crushing my windpipe until swallowing became impossible.

I forced my hands to loosen around his wrist. Tyler mistook it for weakness, a flicker of triumph crossing his face.

“I think you’re forgetting something,” I rasped.

His fingers tightened again. “What?”

Even without air, I managed to smile. “I have a friend who really doesn’t like me being mistreated.”

Shadows spilled across the wall behind Tyler, spreading over the paint like ink through water. His expression changed as he sensed the presence at his back, but he didn’t have time to turn. A black, clawed hand closed around his throat and ripped him away from me.

Air tore into my lungs. I doubled over, coughing hard enough to make my ribs ache, while Tyler’s feet left the floor.

Caligo stood behind him in his true form, horns curving from his head and red eyes blazing with a light that tinted the kitchen walls crimson. He extended one arm, holding Tyler aloft as effortlessly as if he weighed nothing. Tyler clawed at the hand around his throat, his legs kicking uselessly several inches above the floor.

“You hurt him,” Caligo said. “You left marks on his throat.”

Tyler made a strangled noise.

I straightened slowly, one hand pressed to my throat, and my mother’s ring still clenched in the other. Its edges had bitten deeply enough into my palm to leave an imprint.

“Kill him,” I said.

Caligo’s fiery gaze moved to me.