I fell asleep.
I woke up and two menacing shadows towered over my bed.
“Malum said he found you frozen in a snowbank, half-dead from exhaustion.” Scorpius leaned forward and invaded the narrow space of my bunk.
Orion stood behind him, and his brown eyes were narrowed into slits.
Silver skulls glinted in both their ears like bad omens.
I’d never seen them so angry.
“Leave me alone, I’m tired.”
Spicy bergamot and burned chocolate filled my senses. Their scents were harsher than usual.
The bunk bed above me rattled as the twins shifted in their sleep.
White teeth glinted as Scorpius bared his teeth. His voice was deadly as he said, “We’ll talk about this in the shower. You will explain yourself.”
“You’re delusional.”
“Don’t test me, Arabella,” Scorpius sneered, and Orion scowled in agreement. “I’m not as civilized as I pretend to be.”
The men who’d been opening up to me were gone. Had they ever existed?
They shifted and came into focus.
I blinked in horror.
They were covered head to toe in streaks of blood.
Was this a nightmare? Was I imagining them?
“Let’s go. Get up and get in the shower. You have ten seconds, or you’ll be punished,” Scorpius ordered.
I stared at him in disbelief.
The scent of copper intensified in the air, like a dark omen.
“Is this a joke?” I asked groggily. “Are you real?”
Scorpius’s blind eyes widened with mania. He bared his teeth. “Do you want to find out how much I’m not joking?”
I was 98 percent sure that they were figments of my exhausted imagination.
I pushed my covers aside and rolled out of bed. I groaned softly.
The two kings towered above me like angry gods.
Scorpius smirked viciously as they walked together to the bathroom and waited for me.
“Crawl for us,” Scorpius snarled. Orion stood silently next to him.
Definitely a nightmare.
“Fuck you,” I whispered.
Scorpius smiled cruelly. “That can be arranged. Crawl. Now.”
I purposefully didn’t move.
Long minutes passed as we glared at each other, neither budging.
Slowly, I inched forward across the hard floor.
Finally, I stopped at their feet.
They whispered something that sounded remorseful, but my ears had whited out and I wasn’t listening.
I punched out both of their knees, and they slammed to the ground beside me.
“Fuck you both,” I gloated. My plan had worked.
I waited for them to retaliate.
Their expressions were oddly emotional for nightmares.
I tried to stand up, but my arms trembled from the strain. Hands gently grabbed beneath my armpits.
They pulled me up.
Well, this was a confusing nightmare.
Scorpius carried me into the bathroom, and Orion started running the shower.
Moments later, fully clothed, the three of us were squeezed together in the small shower.
“Tell us everything that happened today. Please,” Orion whispered as he pressed himself flush against my back.
Pressure twisted in my sternum because dreams were usually disconnected from the day’s events.
Holy sun god—was this real?
Chapter 34
Orion
SHOWER DEVOTIONS
Hitrch （verb）： to shudder with or as if with cold.
DAY 23, HOUR 4
Arabella was pressed between us in the warm shower.
All three of us were fully clothed. She was limp, unable to hold herself up of her own volition.
There was something inherently wrong with her surrender. It made me ill.
We’d mistreated her.
Yet again.
All three of us rocked back and forth under the spray, and I wasn’t the only one trembling. Scorpius shook as he held our Revered, her cheek pressed against his chest, long lashes fanning over pale skin.
The scar underneath her eye was puckered and red.
A visible testament to how much we’d already failed her. The most important person in our lives, the person we were born to protect, and we couldn’t stop hurting her.
We’d grown up expecting a male mate to be the center of our worlds. Someone who towered over everyone like the rest of us. Someone who was mean and cruel, who bottled up their emotions and expressed themselves through violence.
Our Revered was supposed to be like us.
We’d all assumed he would be the submissive to our dominance, a man who wanted to kneel before us so we could shield him from harm.
Most Revereds wanted to be sheltered. Their nature was the perfect balance that fit within the Ignis and Protectors’ powerful urges to shelter them.