Twice Born

Chapter 18

I resist when Tristan spins me around and pushes me away from Ashin and the dead girl at his feet. His hand presses down on my mouth. “Stop fighting me, Bree. I swear I’ll hurt you if that’s what it takes to get you to shut up.”

It doesn’t matter if I try to fight him. His chest is pressed against my back and one arm immobilizes my arms. He shoves and pulls me through the crowd, slamming his elbows and shoulders into people, but they don’t notice. The sight of the girl bleeding out on the ground interests them far more.

I’m sobbing when he finally releases me under the shade of a blooming tree in the middle of an orchid south of Market Avenue. I lean against the trunk, my hands pressed over my eyes. The girl is dead because of me. I don’t know or care why they picked her out of the countless girls on this island. If it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t have gotten involved in this mess.

And if it weren’t for Tristan, she might still be alive.

The rage that overtakes me burns red-hot. With a low growl that begins deep in my throat, I shove Tristan in the chest with all my strength. It doesn’t budge him. So I attack him again, this time hitting him across the face, the chest. He lets me hit him one more time before he grabs ahold of my wrists and wrenches them behind me.

“Don’t do that,” he says, his chest moving hard.

“She’s dead because of you!” I scream and kick him in the shin.

He moves closer and wraps his arms around me, trapping mine at my sides. “And you’re alive because of me. I could remedy that for you, if you’re so eager for death.”

His hold is too tight, preventing my chest from expanding every time I drag in a breath. “It wasn’t your decision to make.”

“It wasn’t yours either. Anything you do affects Eve and frankly, I doubt she’d be willing to sacrifice herself for some girl neither of you cares about.”

I take back everything I’ve said about people changing. Tristan is so selfish, so apathetic to the pain of others, that it seems unlikely he’ll ever learn to put anyone else first.

I hate that he’s making me an accomplice to this. I want to continue yelling. The alternative is to cry again, and I refuse to show any more weakness in front of him.

So I knee him in the groin.

He groans and releases me, doubling over in pain. I have only a moment to back out of his range before he tackles me around the waist. We hit the ground. Panicked, I swing out at him, clipping him on the ear before he pins my arms on the ground.

His face is a mask of fury. “Don’t ever hit me again. Ever. Do you hear me?”

Shocked, I nod. It feels like he doesn’t see me. Like I’m no longer Bree, but an enemy to him. Suppressing Lucan might’ve freed his body, but his mind is still a prisoner to his dark past.

His hands bruise my wrists. I don’t move or make a sound. I don’t know him well enough to decide that antagonizing him further will lead to anything good. But something changes in his eyes, and then he blinks rapidly.

Tristan stands in one fluid move and puts distance between us, his expression guarded. I get up slowly. The anger rises in me, for an entirely new reason. I’m careful not to let it spill out again. “When Eve told me last night that Daniel never wants to see me again, I was blinded by my pain. I should have sensed that something was amiss. If you’re going to attack me like that in a heartbeat, even though you claim to care about me, why would you let your sworn enemy go without putting up a fight?”

Tristan only stares back.

I shake my head, rubbing my brow. “You lied about what happened. You and Eve.” A thought enters my mind, so frightening I take a step back. “Did you kill him?”