Ravage by Lacey Andersen (ebook reader online txt) 📕

meant that I wasn’t a light fae the way my mother was. I was something darker and more twisted, and yet, was it enough?

To this day, I can still feel my step-father’s hand on my shoulder as he staggered away from them, covered in blood, and stopped beside me. “There are bad people in this world, Bron. It’s our job to protect women. It’s our job to make certain that no one ever hurts them. You hear me, boy?”

I heard him. And I hear him now. But how do I protect someone who’s looking for trouble?

“Fuck,” I mutter, rubbing my face.

I was already worried about protecting her. The last thing I needed to do was worry that she was going to go looking for trouble. But knowing her, I should’ve been prepared for it.

“Do we tell her?” Dwade asks.

Stiffening, I drop my hands and look at him. “Are you nuts? If she even has a suspicion--”

“She’s smart,” he says, as if I don’t know that. “She’s going to find out sooner or later. Wouldn’t it be better if she heard it from us?”

Lucian leans back on the couch. “Not a chance. No matter how we explain it, she won’t understand. She’ll blame us for what happened, and we’ll lose her forever.”

I don’t say the thing we’re all thinking. That it was our fault. We might not have driven that blade into Rayne’s stomach, but we might as well have. His death lay squarely on our shoulders, and Esmeray would see it too.

“I vote we keep it a secret,” I say. If it meant we could have her, it was a secret I’d take to my death.

Dwade shakes his head. “I vote we tell her. She deserves to know the truth. Even if we lose her forever.”

The thought of her disappearing from our lives is like a knife to my gut. I realize I almost tumble off my chair, and Lucian grips my shoulders, pushing me back as I pant. “Don’t think about it,” he says. “Thinking about losing her creates a physical pain. You know that.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. Saying it and feeling it were two totally different things. I knew in my head that the power of a mate bond was a deep and complicated thing, but it didn’t stop my body from breaking out into a sweat, or mind-numbing fear from coming over me.

“We can’t lose her,” I whisper. “Even if keeping the secret destroys us.”

After a second, Lucian says, “She has nobody. Her parents are assholes. She’s been alone for too long. If we tell her the truth, she loses us, after losing Rayne. I want to tell her, but I think it’d be cruel.”

“So?” I whisper.

He closes his eyes. “May the gods forgive us. I vote we keep it a secret.”

I reach out my hand, and Lucian puts his on top of my mine. We both look at Dwade. After a long minute, he places his hand on top of Lucian’s. We stay there for a long minute, letting the reality of our promise sink in, and then we draw our hands back.

“What now?” Lucian asks, and I can tell he isn’t happy about our promise.

“We figure out how to keep her safe.” Dwade rubs his dark, neatly shaved head, not looking at either of us.

I know he’s disappointed in our decision, but over time I think he’ll understand. “We each have a class with her. I say we just do our best to keep an eye on her before and after class.”

“And what about if she makes her nighttime walks a regular thing?” Lucian asks.

“I’d hope after the iron demon she’d stay inside,” Dwade says.

We all start laughing. Yeah, that’s our Esmeray. A woman who stays inside where it’s nice and safe. When we finish, grinning at each other, I say, “Seriously, how do we handle that?”

“Try to keep an eye on her?” Lucian asks, those blue eyes of his holding doubt.

“I guess, but I have a feeling she’ll notice.”

Dwade shrugs his huge shoulders. “So, let her notice.” But then he adds, “I think she’s already suspicious of us.”

Which is just fucking great.

“More than anything,” Dwade continues, “we need to keep her away from the tunnels.”

My gut clenches. Flashes of Rayne looking back at me and grinning before going into the darkness plays over and over again in my mind. And then those dark halls…the blood splattered. The sliding line of blood.

I’m shaking. Fuck. “We can’t let her get hurt.”

“We won’t,” Lucian says, and grips my shoulder.

“When she gets back from wherever the hell she is, we’ll watch her around the clock.” There’s no room for argument in my voice, even though I know they’ll agree.

“And if she doesn’t go along with it?”

“Then we make her,” I say.

A second later, the door to our apartment opens. We all stiffen and turn to the doorway to hear Esmeray giggle. And Esmeray doesn’t giggle.

She walks in backwards, smiling at someone, and a second later Caraway enters, grinning at our Esmeray. His blond hair, left a little long on top, is perfectly styled, and he flashes his white teeth like a prince in some terrible fairy tale. Every muscle in my body tenses. What the fuck is he doing here? He wasn’t Esmeray’s type. I knew her type. So why the hell was she leading him into our home?

She turns around and doesn’t even pretend to look surprised that we’re there. “Hi, boys. Don’t worry, we won’t bother you. Caraway, let’s head to my room.”

I stand. A second later I’m between them, blocking Caraway’s path. “You’re going to want to leave now.”

He looks surprised. “What’s the problem, Bron?”

“The problem is that it’ll be a cold day in hell when we let you in her room.”

Esmeray circles around me to stand at his side. “Since when did you get to decide who I let into my bedroom?”

I don’t hesitate. “Since you came here.”

“Like hell!”

“She can say whatever the fuck she wants, but you take another step forward and